The Hysterical Midnight Show
by The Lonesome Guy
Summary: Teddie's Midnight Trivia Miracle Quiz ended up a failure and so to avenge himself, he decided to go the next level...One nice day in Inaba "Ted Teddyson" summons the gang yet again to the TV world to engage into what the calls "The Hysterical Midnight Show"... Full Summary inside. Chapter 1 is available!
1. Episode 1: The Introduction

**Hello everybody! And welcome to my fanfiction! If you're here you must be interested in my story...so I hope you enjoy it! Some things to point out before you begin...****1. The Characters might be OOC-ish...but there's a reason for it, which will be explained as the story progresses. ****2. If in some of the scenes you are confused, they will be explained later in the story.**

**Summery: Teddie's Midnight Trivia Miracle Quiz ended up a failure and so to avenge himself, he decided to go the next level...One nice day in Inaba "Ted Teddyson" summons the gang yet again to the TV world to engage into what the calls "The Hysterical Midnight Show" where the participants must do a couple of quirky and strange and even serious things...What will happen to our heroes? **

**Genre: Mystery, Humor, Romance.**

* * *

_Episode 1: The Introduction!_

_Act 1: Before the Madness._

* * *

**Yu's POV**

**May 2nd, 2012**

* * *

_Where am I? Is this a dream?_

_I was surrounded by bright lights and monitors and saw some of my friends...Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko standing right next to me...and I also saw Teddie with a white suit, white top hat and a red bow tie right in front of me._

_Teddie chuckled mischievously. "Heheheheheh...Alright, the time has come for you to get your lovely prize! And the prize is...a steamy smooch from Teddie!"_

_What!? What was going on? I was so confused at the time, but then I felt like I've already seen this somewhere before. If this is a dream, please someone wake me from it!_

"_What!?" My friends said, clearly in shock. If I remember correctly the next thing Teddie will say is. "Here I come..." And then he should jump on me and as I predicted, Teddie jumped and was getting closer and closer to my face until I heard a train..._

* * *

When I opened my eyes, the light was so blinding that I had squint. For a moment, I couldn't figure out where I was, so I look around.

"Right...I was on my way back." I muttered to myself and look out the window. It seems that I fell asleep on the train headed to the countryside, where I spent the last year...in Inaba. I thought to myself, what was that dream about just now.

"What was it?" I muttered to myself again, and then I realized, that was Teddie's...uhhh...well...what did he call it? Midnight Trivia Miracle Quiz? Yes, something like that...I wondered why I dreamed about that...

But I decided to shrug it off...and I looked outside again...recalling myself why I decided to go back here in the first place and that is to spent the Golden Week holiday with my friends...

"Now pulling into Yaso-Inaba. This will be the last stop. Yaso-Inaba." The conductor said in a monotone.

"Oh!" End of the line already. Looks I've been asleep for a lot longer that I thought. Just as that thought came to me...I certain worry crossed my mind. Why did I dream about Teddie's Quiz of all things?

No, I shouldn't question myself such irrelevant things. It was probably the just excitement.

The train begins to slow, and I take that as my cue to gather my belongings from the luggage rack above me. When the train comes into a complete stop and the doors open, even the smell of the wind evokes a sense of nostalgia. I step out the platform with a wry smile.

I'm standing in front of the train station, but this town is as quite as it always been. I realize the sun started to set, the orange sky envelops the world.

Today's May 2nd. I'd told Dojima that I will arrive today, but it seems he's to busy with work to come get me.

I was really thirsty, so I decided to go to the vending machine and buy myself something to drink. Then I heard a familiar voice calling out my name. I knew it could be only my friend...Yosuke.

"Yu!" I turned around to see Yosuke running up to me. He pretty much looked the same as I remember him.

"Hey, Yosuke! Long time no see." I greeted him with a smile.

Yosuke smiled back at me and replied jokingly. "Dude, it's been only two months!"

I then realized he's was tho only one to greet me and so I ask him. "Yosuke, where are the others?"

Yosuke was oddly hesitant at first but then replied. "Oh, well...they said they were all busy, so I decided to pick you up alone."

Yosuke was clearly hiding something. I wondered why Teddie wasn't with him, because knowing him, he would mostly slack off on his job or stick around with Yosuke or both. I decided not to ask him about it.

"Anyway, you said you were to pick me up?" I asked him.

"Not quite. I came here by bus." Yosuke said mournfully, then looked down. "Damn, I wish I had a motorcycle."

"Well, let's go. Nanako must be waiting for me." I said, smiling.

"Yeah!" Yosuke looked up again at me, smiling. I got my drink that I bought at the vending machine and so went on to the bus stop.

We made it to the bus stop, and as we waited for the bus to arrive. There was an awkward silence between us. So I looked down at my souvenir bag and remembered something. It's was about Yosuke's gift. Dammit! It just occurred to me that I forgot to buy his special gift.

I actually received a call from Teddie this morning, telling me about it. I was bit confused about his request.

* * *

_Flashback_

"_Hellooooooo! Is this Sensei?" Teddie asked me on the phone. _

"_Yeah, what's up?" I replied happily. _

"_I'm really sorry to bring this up, but I forgot to tell you something bear-y important." Teddie said in an apologetic tone._

"_No, it's okay, what is it that you wanted to tell me?" I asked him as I wondered what it was. _

"_I have a spacial request for the souvenirs I'm sure you'll be bringing for your bear-est friends!" Teddie proclaimed._

_I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to tell people what you want them to bring you as souvenirs...I already have some souvenirs for everybody...but, oh well. Teddie was only asking for snacks that aren't sold in Inaba, so it wasn't much trouble. But...there was one problem..._

"_Oh, and one more thing! Can I ask you to pick up something for Yosuke, too?" Teddie pleaded._

"_I was planing on bringing something for everyone, but...go ahead." I reassured Teddie. I was a little nervous what was he going to say._

"_Cool! Well, Yosuke's been down in the dumps lately after his mommy burned down his favorite nurse." Teddie said with somewhat sad tone. _

_What? I stayed silent and let Teddie finish._

"_She was what I called scorching hot, heehee! Just kidding!" He said jokingly. Now, I was confused and decided to ask about this nurse. _

"_A...a nurse...?" I asked him. It didn't occur to me at the time...but I think he was talking about some adult magazines and Teddie was going to confirm it to me._

"_Aww, c'mon, Sensei. You know what I'm talking about! His nurse magazine, with a chest examinations and the bear behinds!" Teddie said probably embarrassing himself that he said that._

"_I...see..." I said and then groaned at his awkward request. I wasn't sure how to take this and so I asked him. "And...you expect me to buy him a replacement?" _

"_Hrm? Of course, silly! People coming to visit are supposed to bring presents!" Teddie said matter-of-factly. _

"_Mmm-hmm...Alright." That much is true, I guess. _

"_Aha! The sexy nurses will be arriving, after all!" Teddie said in excitement, and it kinda sounds like he wants this magazine for himself. _

"_Yosuke will be so happy! Alright then, we'll be waiting for you!" Teddie said as he hang up._

"_Nurses, huh?" I mused. I didn't know he liked nurses._

* * *

And so in the end I wasn't able to pick up one for him. How can I put it? I'd feel bad for Yosuke if I gave him that magazine, and every time he opened it, his friend's face kept pooping up in his head. And I'd have to think Yosuke has his pride, too...He doesn't need me buying him this stuff.

Then again, this is Yosuke we're talking about. I'm sure he'll understand if I explain my reasoning. Probably...

We were still waiting for the bus, so I decided to strike up a conversation.

"Ummm...I'm sorry..." I decided to start of with the apology about his souvinir.

"Hm? What are you sorry for?" Yosuke said with a confused look on his face. I don't blame him, that was a little sudden.

"Well, you see, I wanted to buy everyone a special souvenir and well I forgot to buy yours." I said with an apologetic face on. He wasn't fazed by it.

"Dude, don't worry! Having you here is awesome enough!" Yosuke said not being sad about the souvenir. I smiled at that response. It always reminds me what friends are for.

I hesitated at whether to bring up about his magazine up or not, so I decided to be honest.

"Well, actully Teddie called, tell-" I was talking casually until I got interrupted by Yosuke who for some reason, got agitated.

"Teddie called you!?" Yosuke literally jumped up from his seat as he said that. That was a strange reaction and by that reaction I could see that something was not right...it's probably has something to do with Teddie.

"Oh, sorry if I startled you..." Yosuke calmed down and looked down o the ground.

"Yosuke, is there something you're not telling?" I asked straight out. I couldn't just ignore his sudden reaction just now.

"No, no there's noth-aw...what the hell...there's no point in hiding it anymore..." Yosuke started of denying it, but then decided to be honest with me since he understood there would be no point.

"It's about Teddie, isn't it? I wondered why he wasn't with you when you came to the station to greet me." I stated.

"Yeah. The reason I got surprised, is because he's...well...he's been missing this past month and so when you said "Teddie called"...I freaked out...me and the rest of the gang haven't heard of him in a while.

I see. So I was right. First of all, I'd bet he tried to keep that a secret from me, so that I couldn't worry about it. There's no need for him to be concerned about me, really. Second, if what Yosuke says is true, then why did Teddie called me this morning? This was defiantly strange.

"A month? Have you checked if he was inside the TV world?" I asked him, curious.

"Yeah. We checked and checked, but couldn't find him anywhere, even Rise couldn't locate him with her Persona. We also looked in the outskirts of Inaba and even searched the Okina City...Nothing..." Yosuke said with annoyance in his voice, but then he looked up again and continued with a serious face and tone. "So, when Teddie called you, what did you two talk about."

"Nothing much, really...He just said to buy that special souvenir I mentioned before...and he did not even sound suspicious in any way either...not in his tone that is." I said with pensiveness. This was really starting to get more and more complicated. I needed to think this through tomorrow...with everyone.

"Say, Yosuke...I think we should discuss this tomorrow with everyone." I suggested. I really didn't want to do this now of all times. Nanako is probably still waiting for me and the sun is almost set.

"I agree. We gonna meet at our usual spot, like always." Yosuke agreed with me. And the usual place he is talking about is Junes Food Court.

As we finished talking, the bus we've been waiting for, has finally arrived.

And so, after 15 minutes or so, I have finally arrived to the Dojima residence. The place on the outside looked exactly the same as I remember it.

And so I stood in front of the front door, ringing the doorbell, expecting Nanako to greet me.

The sliding front door opens...and as expected, I see Nanako standing in front of me, smiling and then saying happily. "Welcome back, Big bro!". By the sound of her cheerful voice, I could defiantly say that she's been anxiously awaiting for me.

And so I step inside, take off my shoes and go inside the living room where I see Dojima lying back on the sofa. It appears he came back home not too long before I did. He tilts his head towards me and said the same thing Nanako did with a smile on his face. And as I look into the table that was in the living room too, I saw some expensive looking food. Dojima must have brought this.

I put the souvenir bag down on the floor and wash my hands. I, Nanako and Dojima all sat at the table and began to eat the food. Dojima also apologized about the sudden increase workload. But that didn't really bother me...as long as the family was here, that what counts.

Being here like this makes me feel like the two months I was gone, never happened at all. There's a warm atmosphere, as if I've always been a part of this family and have lived with them for my entire life. I thank both of them from the depths of my heart, and after I give them the souvenirs I'd bought for them, we enjoy chatting with each other...as a family.

Nanako feel asleep from all the excitement. After carrying her to her own room, I told my uncle that I'd be going to bed early as well, sense I have plans and I was really tired. I finished the meal and gone upstairs to my room. It's another familiar room which brings back more memories.

I sit down on my sofa and sigh from the exhaustion of the long journey. I'll be able to see my friends tomorrow. As much as I wanted to hang out with my friends this holiday, I needed to know what had happened to Teddie. Whole month gone, huh? I wonder if he's okay. He must be. I then heard droplets of water coming down from the outside.

"It's raining." I blurted out without thinking. I look at the time and the time is just before midnight. In mere moments it will be a new day. Whenever it rains at night, I keep checking the time. While I spent the last year in Inaba, I was always checking for the "Midnight Channel", which was a popular urban legend here in Inaba. It's a bad habit of mine, is what it is.

"If you look at a turned-off TV at midnight on rainy night, you will see your soul mate." Discovering that this rumor was actually true was the first reason why I became involved in the murder investigation last year. But the person who actually appears on the Midnight Channel isn't your soul mate...

It's the next victim.

After discovering this, we all nervously sat before our TVs on rainy nights like this one in order to solve the case.

"Ha...That brings back memories. Nothing will show anymore, though." I said with glad-fullness.

Will nothing really appear, though? I'm starting to have doubts...because Teddie hadn't shown his face to his friends in a month and that he mysteriously called me this morning. But then again, we did solve the case, we all confirmed that the Midnight Channel wasn't appearing again. Should I stay awake to see if the Midnight Channel will come up? Or should I go to sleep now?I figured...

"Just in case...for old times sake." I said with a serious face on.

I peer into the TV screen, as if something drawing me into it. But all I see is my reflection in the dark glass of the CRT television.

...Or so I thought...

Suddenly, out of the blue, the television started to emit static and then showing something. I couldn't believe it with my eyes. The Midnight Channel...is back!?

But I decided to think about it later and see what it was showing. What I saw, was really odd, to say the least. The TV...errr...the Midnight Channel was showing all of my friends attached to strings and being pulled and the one who was pulling their strings was a silhouette of...Teddie!?

As I watched more...there was a little indication of a message coming closer and closer to full view. The message stopped and it read..."Come to the TV world, Yu Narukami."...

Wait...Me? Yu Narukami...that's my full name...I was getting more and more confused each second. What was going on? The screen stayed like that for a minute before it shut of.

"Wha...? "Come to the TV world, Yu Narukami""? I said and stood there in shock.

I hurry to make sure that the TV isn't plugged in. That was, most certainly….the Midnight Channel. What it was actually showing was rather ridiculous and/or something to be possibly afraid of. But, thinking back, everything the Midnight Channel showed last year didn't make any sense, either.

It doesn't make any sense. Why did the Midnight Channel air again? I have to find out why. I immediately thought of calling Yosuke and so I did, I wondered if he saw it too.

"Let's see,...H...Hanamura, Yosuke." I quickly hit the call button and he picked up.

"Did you see it!?" Yosuke said right away. By the sound of his voice, I knew he was panicking.

"Yes. I assume you did too." I said. I wonder if he had the same bad habit as me. I mean how could he possibly knew the Midnight Channel would come back today.

"Yeah, This is really bad. First Teddie and now this!?" Yosuke said in an angry tone. He was definitely confused and annoyed by this just as I was. Teddie's disappearance and the return of the Midnight Channel, must be connected somehow.

"Alright. We should get together tomorrow like we planned." I said with confidence. Whatever is happening, we are going get to the bottom of this.

"Yeah, at the Junes food court. Also...I forgot to say something...welcome back...Partner." Yosuke said before hanging up.

I made sure I was ready for tomorrow. I feel asleep on my futon...praying, that this was only a joke of some sort.

* * *

**May 3rd, 2012**

* * *

I woke up early today like I planned and gone to Junes right away.

This place is lively as always. I look across the food court on Junes' roof for the first time in awhile. Even though there aren't that many people in Inaba, this is exceptionally crowded.

I happen to run into Yosuke at the elevators. We briefly greet each other. It was a little awkward.

The closer we are, the more simple our interactions when we meet each other face-to-face. The two of us step out to the food court. We immediately find Yukiko, Chie, Kanji, Rise and Naoto. All of them wave back at us from the bench they're sitting on.

"Good to see you guys again." I said with cheerful smile.

"Welcome back! We missed you!" My friends said in unison, then Chie continued. "The guest of honor's finally here! You're looking well." Chie greeted me with a wide smile. Suddenly someone grabbed my arm and I look around to Rise was the one. "How have you been, Senpai?" Rise winked at me as she said that. She didn't change in appearance and personality. Then Kanji walked up to me and crossed his arm and smiled. "Hey, welcome back, Senpai! Man, have I missed you!" I'm sure you did Kanji. Naoto then followed suit and greeted me formally as well.

"Welcome back. Um, should we...?" Yukiko questioned Yosuke about something.

"Hm...? Oh, he already know about Disappearance of Teddie and the Midnight Channel thing. He's actually the one who called me up about it." Yosuke explained.

"Oh, I see. This has turned into a pretty thrown-together reunion, hasn't it? Well except Teddie's not here." Yukiko said with a joy but then a little sad when she mentioned Teddie.

We chat some more for a little bit while we all sit down. Then Yosuke stands up and clears his throat loudly. He's probably been waiting for the right moment to say something. He hasn't mentioned anything to me, but I can easily guess what he's about to say. We all look towards him...

"Well, it sucks that we can't hang out more before jumping into another mystery, but to celebrate our partner's return...I hereby reinstate the Investigation Team in response to the Midnight Channel going back on air last night!" Yosuke declared.

"Alright!" Everyone cheered. "Ah...the team is back!" Yukiko was getting really excited about this and then shortly afterward the enthusiastic Chie said. "Just hearing that name again gets me all fired up! Yeah! Let's DO this!"

Everyone, including me and even Kanji, began now to applaud. Yosuke got unhappy about it for some reason.

"I don't think the applause is necessary." Yosuke groaned in annoyance.

Why not? It's been two months sense we last saw each other, after all...The girls start chuckling when I shrug...and though Yosuke seems saddened at that, he still ends up laughing along as well. I was relieved to see that they're the same as always...And because of that, it makes me more worried about Teddie...so we can't start slacking off. We began to sort through the information that we know about already.

Yosuke got his serious face on again and started. "Well, let's get cracking. I mean, this is no laughing matter."

"So, no one's heard from Teddie for about a month, until now...when he called Yu yesterday morning." Yosuke started.

"Yeah, and we couldn't find him in the TV world, either." Rise said, worryingly.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. I couldn't find a trace of him anywhere...though I had this felling of being blocked by something." Rise clarified.

"I see." She had a felling of being blocked? I think, I'll ask that question to myself later on. For now, we don't know if she was blocked or not.

Also, the relation of Teddie's disappearance and the reappearance of the Midnight Channel last night disturbs me.

"There was something peculiar to me about the Midnight Channel. The picture on the TV was very clear last night. Because, if were going by the pattern from last year, it wouldn't be that clear until after the "victim" entered the TV." Naoto inquired.

"Hey, isn't this the first time a big group of people are shown together? Plus, we're still here." Chie wondered and then got a little pissed off. "Why us, anyway?" Chie seems really angry about it.

"What bothers me most is Teddie. He looked like he was pulling your guys' strings." I implied. What it did show the Midnight Channel was odd and confusing.

"This smells fishy...then again, I doubt he would play a prank like this for no reason." Chie said in suspicion. It would make sense, he disappeared about a month without a trace, and then he suddenly called me on the day when I was arriving to Inaba. It wasn't even special or anything. It was just about Yosuke's special gift.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to go inside the TV and find out what's going on for ourselves, I mean he must be in there, where else he could be?" Yosuke said with determination.

That's right..."go inside the TV". Out of everything, that was the element that shook our common sense the most out of everything we experienced last year.

"Yeah, there's no doubt that something's going on in there. Is everyone ready?" I asked with determination.

"We all good to go. To tell you the truth, I had a hunch that this was going to happen." Yosuke smiled.

We all share a look to confirm our intentions. And all of them nod back...I can see the seriousness in their eyes. Even though there was a two month gap since I last saw them, they still continue to put their trust in me. I feel a slight sense of pride as I stand from the bench. The large-screen TV in the electronics department is directly below the food court...and off we go...

And so, all 7 of us, made it to the "entrance" to the TV world. But there was a little problem. The store's was full of people...probably because of the holiday.

"Heh...I feel like things are picking around town." I said. It been awhile sense I was in the TV world and without thinking I touched the screen...and I've got to say, the felling was the same.

Chie was a little surprised. "Hey, w-wait, there's still people on this side!" Chie whispered loudly. Yosuke then turned around. "Hey, get ready! The costumers are going away!"

"Alright, I'm gonna ask this just to be sure, are you all ready?" I said and then tilted my head to the guys and they just respond with a nod and a"uh-huh" and then I tilt my head to the girls who did the same thing.

I dug my hand deeper into the TV...and looked at it for a second and said. "Let's go!"

It was like I remember it...we floated trough the black and white rectangle-like lines. Until...

Suddenly the colors became inverted and it looked like we were falling into a black hole.

"Isn't this different from usual?" Kanji pointed out. It was the first time this ever happened.

"Oh no! What do we do?" Chie said in a panicked voice.

"What can we do!? We can't stop now!?" Yosuke cried out. Then the bottom started to show bright lights in which I had to squint.

Everyone screamed in terror while I braced myself for the worst. After that...I pass out.

* * *

**October 29, 2009**

* * *

_Ugh..._

_Hmmmm...Where am I?_

_As I open my eyes...I see nothing but darkness...I was lying on, what I think is a bed. I was shivering and so I realized, wherever I was...was really cold, to the point of freezing._

_I immediately tried to get up, but I couldn't, because it felt like I was tied to something. It felt like a rope, I tried to yank it off, but I was tied in tightly._

_A sudden realization stroke me. Just where am I? It sure doesn't feel like my room and why am I tied up in a bed? _

_Then without any warning, the lights got turned on in the room, blinding me. After a few seconds, I regained my vision. The room I was in, was completely unfamiliar to me. As far I could see, the room looked run down, and I had was wearing nothing but my boxers, which is why it's so cold. _

_This was obviously not the dorm, and so the question was, just where am I? And why am I in position like this, being tied up in a bed. My heart started to beat faster out of fear._

_I just hoped that this was all a dream. It must be. _

"_Heeeeeeeey!" I yelled. Maybe calling for help wasn't the best thing, considering the place I'm in, but it was worth a shot. _

_A few minutes passed, I couldn't feel my body, because of the cold. And then I heard something. It sounded faint, but it was defiantly someone's footsteps. _

_Did someone come to my rescue, I thought. No, I was being too optimistic. It was most possibly the person who tied me up._

_My heart started beating faster and faster and faster. Anxiety hit me, hard. I then tried to yank off the ropes, and kept trying and trying, but it just kept hurting me instead, because if I keep this up, I'm sure I'll get rope burns. Whoever tied me up, tied me up real good, as if he or she didn't want me to move an inch, at all._

_The footsteps were getting closer and closer and then they stopped. My body was shaking furiously. Just what he or she want with me? As the door opened, I saw a...girl, because of her physique, but I wasn't completely sure, because she was covering her face with a weird looking mask and she was wearing a black coat. She went in a then closed the door behind her and then locking it. I wonder why she locked the door. _

_But that wasn't the issue right now. "Who are you? Where am I? Is it you who tied me up?" I asked multiple questions at ones. But she replied with a simple...chuckle? _

_I didn't notice it before, but there was table with some things. And so she walked up to it. I couldn't see, but it kinda looked like, as if she was preparing something._

_I decided to ask her again, but with a stern tone this time. "I asked you a question...Who are you and where a-!?" As I was talking, she suddenly took some duck tape and covered my mouth with it._

"_Mhmnhmhmhmhhm!?" I couldn't speak properly. But I clearly wanted to say, "What the hell!?". Just who the hell IS this? _

"_Shhhh..." She shushed me. By the sound of her voice, I can defiantly tell that was a girl. _

_I don't understand any of this! I was desperate need of answers. She returned to what she was doing. I decided to look at her again and as I far as I could tell, her physique looked like of a high schooler. _

_My mind was jumbled, I didn't know what to think anymore. All I wanted is to get out of here and come back to my friends._

_I tried yank off the ropes, again...but this time I didn't care if I got rope burns, I just wanted to move my body, because the position I was in was getting tiring and uncomfortable. _

_The girl finished whatever she was doing and then turned to face me. I was shocked at what she was holding in her left hand. It was multiple sharp objects like scissors, ice picks, knifes you name it, into one big stabber of a weapon. _

_I wondered just what is she going to do with that. It was stupid of me to wonder that. She was obviously going to kill me...wait...kill...me? _

"_MMHHHMHHMHH!?" I screamed as loud as could. From fear to anxiety, from anxiety to terror._

_The girl simply laughed a little. What the hell so funny!? I tried yet again to yank of the ropes, but I couldn't even do that anymore, because I was terrified and I was freezing to death. _

_As she raised her hands with her mega-stabber, as I would call it, and she strikes me with it. _

_I tried let out a scream, but it was too late, I was stabbed in the heart and with it lost my consciousness._

* * *

**Minato's POV**

"Ahhhhhh!?" I screamed and the shock made me get up in a sitting position. Huh? I'm alive!? I touched my body everywhere to check, if it was real. And it was.

"Phew. So it was just dream, or rather a nightmare. It sure felt as if I was there. I need to stop watching horror movies, that must have caused this nightmare." I said to myself. By the time I realized, I was sweating like hell. That nightmare really scared the wits out of me. But I decided to ignore that, and checked the time. It was morning. I needed to get ready for school.

And so I did my morning routine, put on my clothes and tried heading to the first floor lounge, but something stopped me. I saw something on the floor near the door. That "something" I'm talking about, were 3 envelopes. Looks like someone slipped these. And they were not just some plain envelopes, each of them looked different in their own way.

I picked them up to take a closer look. The first one was pink, bright pink. I could only think of Yukari for some reason. Then, the second one. It was red. Red. The edges of the envelope was covered in gold paint. For some reason, to me, it resembled elegance in which Mitsuru could have slipped this. And the last one was just a green-ish color. The color pretty much resembled Fuuka's hair color.

"What is this?" I asked myself. I can defiantly tell that Yukari, Mitsuru and Fuuka slipped these in my room. So why? I wanted to open them and see what inside, but I then realized that I was going to be late for school, if I didn't hurry. I shoved all three envelopes in my pocket and headed down to the first floor.

There was nobody there, probably already headed out to the school.

I finally arrived at the school. I straight away headed to my classroom. While I was going there, I felt like as if someone was watching me. I shrugged the felling off. I was just being paranoid.

As I opened the door, I bummed into someone. It was a girl. A girl, I didn't recognize. She had long, wavy and ginger hair. Before I inspect her any further, she quickly stood up and ran off, saying in a high-pitched voice. "I'm sorry!"

I ignored it and stood up as well, and came into the classroom. I sat at my spot and took out the 3 letters from my pocket.

I placed on my table and looked at them carefully. I didn't know what to do.

As I was deep in thought, someone's voice interrupted, a voice I know to well.

"Good Morning!" Junpei said excitedly. He was full of energy today.

I didn't say anything back to him. I simply continued looking at envelopes. Junpei noticed and said with surprised expression. "Whoa, is that a love letter I see!" I quickly hid the envelopes as everyone in the classroom looked at me and Junpei.

Grrr! Damn you, Junpei! I stomped on his foot, really hard. "Owwww, ow ow ow! H-hey! What was that for?" Junpei said, holding his foot in pain.

"When you notice something interesting, do you always scream "Whoa!" like an idiot?" I asked, still frustrated. Why I'm frustrated? It's because, I don't want any rumors spreading throughout the school.

"Sorry, I'm just really excited today!" Junpei said, full of energy, as he ran off the classroom for some reason. I don't know why is he excited, and I don't want to know.

I, once again, placed the three envelopes on the table and looking at them. I still haven't opened them. I don't know what's inside, but I'm pretty sure they are something special. I'll open them all and see what's inside first.

Alright, I'll go with the pink one first. I opened the envelope, to see there was letter. The handwriting of the letter, I knew all to well. It was Yukari's. And now on to the contents.

_Meet me at the archery club entrance, after school. I have something to tell you._

That's it? Really now, I was expecting more than just a few words saying where to go and when to go.

I decided to open what could possibly be Mitsuru's envelope. As I open the envelope, I saw the same thing. A letter. The handwriting is without a doubt is Mitsuru's. The contents though...

_Meet me in the Student Council, after school. There's something special I have to tell you...alone. _

I didn't expect this. I always thought Mitsuru is a one of those who writes detailed letters. Well, then again if I to write a letter about something simple, I'd probably keep it short.

And moving on to the last green one. I opened it up to see something...another letter. I had a hard time recognizing whose handwriting because it was a little _off, _and then it hit me that was Fuuka's handwriting.

_Please, meet me at the school gate, after school. There's something special I want to tell you in private. _

And that's it. Weird, for such a short letter, they sure went out on the envelopes. Oh well, not that it matters. As I assumed, all of them wrote about the "special" thing. What bothered me is why did they send letters. I'm pretty sure they have my number, so that they could send me an e-mail. Nah, I'm thinking to much.

Now comes the hard part...3 girls probably want to hang out with me. All 3 of them are beautiful in their own way. I can't really hang out with all three of at once. So I have to choose.

Yukari...Mitsuru...Fuuka...

I know...There's only one solution to this problem and that is...

I'll just have to Eeny, meeny, miny, moe it...That always works...I mean, this one time I had a hard time choosing between two delicious candies...and the one that ended up winning was really tasty and really I had no regrets...Alright so, on the left is going to be Yukari's letter, then Mitsuru's in the middle and last one is Fuuka's on the right. Ok...I'm going to go from left to right.

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

Catch a tiger by the toe.

If he hollers, let him go,

Eeny, meeny...

Before I finished...I gave up the idea. I shouldn't choose a girl out of pure counting rhyme. If only something or someone would give me an advice of some sort.

As I slept though the boring lectures, I finally heard the final school bell ringing.

* * *

**After School**

* * *

I didn't go in any designated places I should have been, so I went straight to the dorm. When I got to the school gate I saw Fuuka. I guess she is serious about that "special" thing she wants to say to me.

I'm sorry, Fuuka, but if I choose you for my lover, over the other two girls,before giving a second thought. I know I will regret it!

And so, I sneaked past her, somehow. She didn't notice me, and that was good. I continued walking back to the dorm, and on the way, I ran into Junpei, who seemed to be...sad...?

"Hey, man..." Junpei said, sighing depressingly. What's happened to him I wondered. This morning I saw him all excited over something and now I see him like he'd been rejected in something, which possibly, might and may be the case.

I decided to ask him what happened. "Umm, did something happen, Junpei?" I asked him in concern. But to be honest, I didn't. I'm still mad at him for blabbing out the letters.

* * *

_Brief Flashback_

_Junpei noticed I was looking at the envelopes. and said with surprised expression. "Whoa, is that a love letter I see!" I quickly hid the envelopes as everyone in the classroom looked at me and Junpei. _

_Grrr! Damn you, Junpei! I stomped on his foot, really hard. "Owwww, ow ow ow! H-hey! What was that for?" Junpei said, holding his foot in pain._

* * *

Just remembering it, makes me mad. I mean what if someone heard that and started spouting rumors. The girls would probably...no, DEFINATLY wouldn't like that. I pretty sure they wanted me to keep those letters a secret only to myself. Well, now that I think about it, it my fault for putting them out for anyone to see. Nice job, dumbass. You dun goofed. I knew I should have gone to the restroom. Well what's done is done.

"Hey, Minato! Are you listening?" Junpei proclaimed, snapping his fingers in front of my face.

Huh? Man, I was so deep in thought, that I didn't even hear Junpei's story. Whoops, my bad.

"I'm sorry, Junpei. Could you repeat that?" I said, as I scratched my head, feeling embarrassed for no reason.

"Ugh, You're still mad about that, like I said, I'm sorry, dude, but something far worse happened to me than to you." Junpei said with an apologetic and then terrified tone. Well, I'm glad he realized what he done and apologized, I feel a little bit happier. Anyway, when he said that "far worse" his face looked like as if he'd seen a ghost. By the look on that face, I can say that something DID happen to him.

"So what happened to you?" I asked, my curiosity being picked. But I felt like the story he's about to tell me will be just about some girl rejecting him.

"Well, this morning when I was heading out to school. I noticed something by the door and decided to pick it up. It was an envelope, a love letter." Junpei said, sighing. Now that's a surprise. A love letter, to Junpei? Now that's what you don't see everyday. Wait...there's something strange here...

"And so, I opened the envelope to see there was a letter. And it read this..." Junpei said taking out something out of his pocket, and then handed it to me. It seems he doesn't want read it, rather he wants me to read it. Ok...The contents on the letter was surprising and almost shocking.

_Please, meet me at the school pool entrance, after school. There's something special I want to tell you in private. _

Huh!? The letter is really identical to the others I got! Could this be coincidence or...No, it couldn't be. Something weird is going on, I can tell that much.

"I see...so, what then?" I asked him nervously. For some reason, whatever is he going to tell me, I got the feeling, I won't like it.

"Well, when I got to the place we should meet...well I didn't see anyone...really..." Junpei said, closing his eyes, scratching his head. He lied, I can tell that by the terrified look he gave me before. I mean how could you get scared of something he haven't seen. I would understand if he gave me the sad look. But then again, I feel like he was lying for the sake of not saying it. But I need to know.

"What really happened, Junpei?" I asked him, crossing my arms.

Junpei was a bit surprised at my question. Oh come on, an amateur can spot that you were lying.

"Are you sure?" Junpei warned me. He really doesn't want to talk about it. But I needed to know. Just for the sake of knowing it.

"Yes." I said. Whatever he saw, just what scared him so? The tension has grown and after a deep breath, Junpei said something I didn't expect.

"A chick with school swimsuit..." Junpei whispered to my ear.

…

….

…...

…...Wha?...

WHAAAAAAAAAT!? That's it!?

"Are you serious!? What's so scary about a girl school swimsuit!?" I exclaimed. And here I thought, something horrible happened to him...But it appears it was Junpei being Junpei.

"Whoa...chill, dude! Scary? Did I looked scared to you? It was shock that I'd seen a one-of-a-kind chick with a swimsuit on...Hey do want to know how she looked like?" Junpei reassured and then asked. One-of-a-kind?

"No! I don't care how she looked like!" I refused his perverted offer, but there's was no point to it anyway.

"Well, since you were disappointed at that...I might as well tell how this one-of-a-kind girl looked like. She had a nice body and her most beautiful feature was her long, wavy and ginger hair." Junpei said with disgusting and perverted look on his eyes.

Looking away from him, I remembered something. I wondered if he was talking about the same girl I bummed into when I tried to enter my classroom. I didn't give it much thought, but I now wonder what she was doing in my classroom. As far I could remember, during lectures, I haven't seen her, sitting in any school desk. That was the last time I have seen her in classes. So she wasn't my classmate. The question is...what was she doing in my classroom at the time when i bumped into her? Maybe she's got lost and ended up in my classroom. I mean it looked like as if she was rather in a hurry.

"Heeeeey! Earth to Minato!" Junpei once again woke me from my deep thinking.

"Hmmm, what were you saying?" I asked Junpei. I did it again apparently.

"I was telling the rest of the story...that I don't bring up again..." Junpei said with a sad tone. So there was more? I knew it...and I think I know what's he going to say...

"Ugh, dude...well, when I was looking at the girl, someone saw me and well...knocked me out..." Junpei said, holing his head. I assume he was hit in the head. Why though? Also I did not expect him getting hit in the head.

"And then, the weird part is that I found myself lying on a school desk in my classroom. I was tired and didn't want to do anything else and so I decided to go back to the dorm." Junpei finished. It is kinda weird, why would someone hit a guy and then carry him to his classroom.

I wonder if he had forgotten about the letter and the date when he saw his proclaimed "one-of-a-kind" girl. Ugh, just thinking about it makes me feel perverted. I wonder if someone played a prank on him or something, because it doesn't look like he has seen the girl he was supposed to meet with. I mean, I'm sure he would have told me about her. I wonder if that would've happened to me too. I mean the contents of the Junpei's letter and mine are far from being just a coincidence. Then again, I did see Fuuka standing near the school gate...

Ugh, I need to stop over thinking this. It was just a prank someone pulled and that's it.

"Anyway, have you heard this weird rumor going on about?" Junpei asked.

"What weird rumor?" I asked back. I have no idea what he was talking about.

"You never heard it!? Dude, how could not have heard about it. Practically everyone in our school talking about it." Junpei said in amazement.

"Well that's because I have no idea what you're talking about. Also, I care less for such things. Rumors are just rumors." I responded bitterly.

"No, no...this is a special one." Junpei interpreted and then continued explaining. "They call it the Midnight Channel...It is said that if one would stare at the screen of a closed television, alone, at midnight during a heavy rain, one could see their soul mate." Junpei said in a spooky tone.

"First of all, it sound more like an urban legend than a rumor, second, it doesn't make sense. I mean just how a closed television would work?" I questioned Junpei, but he simply gave me a confused look as if saying "I don't know".

The rumor sounded stupid enough, so why are people talking about? Junpei also said that you would see your soul mate, but I have no idea who thought of that.

"I just thought we try it, see if it's true or not." Junpei suggested. I shook my head and responded.

"Oh come on, you and I both know that it won't work. Plus, there's the Dark Hour and there's the shadows we have to worry about."

"Man, come on, just this one midnight. Look, today is gonna rain, and for some reason this rumor bugs the hell out of me. I really need to know if this rumor is true or not." Junpei said with conviction. For something so stupid, he sure is serious.

"Alright, fine! But if it going to turn out to be a hoax, you own me lunch. Got it?" I agreed and so did he. We had nothing else to talk about so we went straight to the dorm.

* * *

**Evening**

* * *

I went to the boys restroom and then to my room. I still had to wait some hours until midnight so I thought I would use that time to study. For the future exams. While I was studying, like Junpei said, it started raining. I then wondered if this Midnight Channel is really going to work. Junpei said, I could see my soul mate. It was something I was looking for, I mean I didn't know what girl should I choose, but...

I decided to stop studying, with all these thoughts flying around my head, I wouldn't concentrate properly.

* * *

**Midnight/Dark Hour**

* * *

It was almost midnight, and the rain was still falling down. According to Junpei, I just needed to stare at the screen until something pops up. Hmmm...Looks like the dark hour set on...I only just realized...No electronics should work in the dark hour, so there was no way this "Midnight Channel" would show up, but still I waited.

I waited and waited...and nothing was popping up...I sighed..."I knew Junpei was playing tricks on me, I can't belie-" I said to myself until...

...Suddenly something unthinkable happened...The TV turned itself on and it was emitting static.

"What?" I mouthed the word and stared at the screen in awe. Hundred of questions attacked me all at once.

How did it turn itself on? How was it working in the dark hour? Is someone broadcasting this? If so, why?

I stared at it, until it showed me a couple of silhouettes and a mysterious figure on top which looked like a teddy bear, perhaps?

For some unknown reason I wanted to put my hand on the screen. I don't know why, I just wanted to do that. And so as my hand was drawing closer and closer to the screen, something even peculiar happened.

I don't know how to describe it, the only way I could describe it is that someone's hand "came out" of the TV and then forcefully grabbed my hand and tried to pull me in into the TV...Did I just say that?

I was shocked, confused and startled all in the same time. I couldn't make sense of what was going on and it didn't occur to me to scream for help. I tried resisting this mysterious hand but I couldn't...it was too strong, and before I knew it, I blacked out, not knowing what happened next.

* * *

_Act 2: The Start of the Madness._

* * *

**Yu's POV **

**Time: ?**

…...

Hmmmm...

Ughh...

"Huh? Wh-where am I?" I questioned nothingness. What happened?

As I look around, I was in some sort of classroom. What was I doing in a classroom? I remember entering the TV and then...

Wait...I did enter the TV with the rest of the Investigation Team...I looked around the classroom again. It was just me.

Why is it a school though? When we entered "that one TV" we always ended up in the same spot, the studio-like place. And we came with everybody. But now, we landed into a school and separated.

Maybe, I was just fast asleep and then dreamed about this? No. The air in this place smells like the TV world. And this classroom, I don't recognize it at all.

I decided to look around the classroom that would confirm this is the TV world. As I looked around, I found a...pamphlet-looking thing.

It read: _Meet me at the school __hall__. Let's get this thing started, everyone!_

School Hall? And let what started? I wonder if this is Teddie's doing. No, it must be him. It's the whole point we went here, and that is to find Teddie. Just what is he up to.

Anyway, before I went out the classroom, I decided to look outside the window. I saw nothing weird, surprisingly. The outside looked beautiful, and I'm saying that because of the falling cherry blossoms. Apparently, it was spring. I wonder what school this is. The classroom and the outside looked really different. It wasn't Yasogami High that's for sure. Hmmm...

Well, I needed to head out the classroom and so I did. The moment I went out the classroom, I saw a long hallway. I didn't know where the school hall was, because I'm not familiar with this school at all.

As I walked and walked through the hallway and stumbled across other rooms, such as...another classroom that read 2-2, an infirmary, and a faculty office. I tried all the doors, but they were all locked. No surprise there. I also saw a clock and it showed past 1 p.m.

After, probably 10 minutes or so...I finally found the school hall. As I opened the door, I saw everyone.

They turned around to see who was opening the door. When they saw me, Yosuke yelled out my name in surprise and relief.

"Yu!"

Everyone ran up to me, smiles in their faces. I was glad they were okay. And so we stopped the re-reunion. I asked them a question that I had in mind.

"Guys, have you find Teddie?" All of them shook their heads. No surprise there either.

"Hey, Senpai. Where do you think we are?" Kanji asked me. That was rather a peculiar question. We were in the TV world. And we were in the school. I look around the school hall.

"It's a school by the looks of it. I think you meant to ask why we are here?" I responded.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure this wasn't here and never was when we last checked the place." Chie said.

"Rise, could you determine where we are, right now." I asked Rise. She seems disappointed.

"I can't...I can't use my persona..." She said gloomily. I was concerned.

"Why can't you?" I curiously asked. But the answer is probably going to be...

"I don't know." Rise said simply. I wonder...I walked away from everyone a few steps.

"Izanagi!" I called out my persona's name and nothing came out. Just as I suspected.

I turned around to see everyone's shocked faces except Naoto who was calm.

"We can't use our personas. Interesting..." I mused. I put my thumb and my index finger on my chin.

"Are we really in the TV world? I mean if we can't summon our persons then-" Chie started before Naoto cut her off.

"Yes, we are. Someone must have changed things around here. Remember what we saw when we entering the TV world? Well, if anything else, that must have caused this." Naoto said with certainty. As I was about to say something...

"_Hee hee hee...You all here now." _Someone declared. I was a voice we all knew to well. It came out from the podium. And so we all turned around to the podium and we all glared at the podium. It was him. It was Teddie.

For one thing, I was glad that we found Teddie safe and sound. He was wearing a white top hat, a white suit with a big red bow tie. I feel like I've seen him wearing that before.

"Well then! I'm proud to announce the opening of our bear-y own Hysterical Midnight Show!" Teddie declared on the microphone.

What? Hysterical Midnight Show? The midnight channel did show a silhouette of Teddie...so is Teddie is really the one behind this? No one spoke, so I decided to say something.

"Teddie, what's going on here? We came to look for you, and-" I said of concern. But Teddie just interrupted me.

"Ugh, Always with the talking, Sensei! It's a big waste of time!" Teddie complained. Why was he acting like this, it wasn't like him at all.

"Let ME talk! I'm gonna explain the show's rules to you guys!" Teddie said excitedly.

"Rules? Show? Cut the crap, Ted! You know, we've been worried about you! Where have yo-" Yosuke exclaimed but then got interrupted by Teddie.

"Ugh, not you too, Yosuke! Anyway, that doesn't matter now! What matters is the game that you will play." Teddie said in a menacing tone as he somehow snapped his fingers.

Suddenly 7 envelopes came dropping from above and landed on the floor. Then Teddie spoke again.

"In each envelope, bear-s each of your names. And in those envelopes, you will find two sheet of papers, one containing the rules and the other one containing a schedule." Teddie explained. I looked at the envelopes.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa...whoever said we're gonna participate in this!" Chie stopped Teddie.

"Yeah, Chie's right! The last time we played your quiz thing...it resulted in horrible end and remember what we said at the end "We're not gonna play anymore of your stupid games!"" Yosuke yelled. I stopped looking for my envelope and faced Teddie.

"I knew you were going to say that, so I prepared something that will change your mind." Teddie said again in a menacing tone. What did he mean by that?

"Oh, yeah? And what's that? Well, whatever it is, it sure won't change any of our mind." Kanji said, almost not believing Teddie's words and when he said that, another 7 envelopes came falling from above.

"Hehehe...See those envelopes?" Teddie laughed evilly and continued. "In each envelope, bear-s each of your names like the one with the rules. And in that envelope contains each of your own...guess what...deep, dark secrets and shameful memories." Teddie said and smiled evilly. Everyone looked in disbelief and so did I. How could he possibly know our secrets and shameful memories.

"Don't believe me? Well open up the envelope and see if I'm telling the truth or not." Teddie said. I looked at everyone beside me and they all nodded. For some reason I was nervous. I keep telling myself Teddie is lying, but the sound of his voice, it felt like he was telling the truth.

As I open the envelope with my name on it, I see a note. I looked at the note and I was instantaneously shocked. The contents of this note did contain my secret that I didn't share with anyone else. It says...

_Yu Narukami is a man whore. H__e's__ dating multiple girls in secret __in his home town. __He also likes smashing cards.__ Wonder what will __the girls__ think of you, if this were to release to public._

It also contained pictures of our dates. The big question that flowed into my mind is how did he could've know all this. I remember never speaking about this with anyone. I quickly hid the pictures and the note inside the envelope and put into my pocket.

I looked at the others. Yosuke and Kanji looked surprised, Yukiko and Chie looked a little angry, and Naoto and Rise looked somewhat embarrassed.

"I-is this some kind of joke?" Chie said, trying not believe this.

"Nope, it not! And if any of you disagree to play the game in the next 20 minutes, you can expect these notes and photographic proof be released in the school for everyone to see." Teddie said with sound of threat and to add insult to injury, he continued.

"Also for the record, I won't let you guys out, until you finish the game." Teddie said yet again in a menacing tone.

What was the point of this? Yosuke mentioned something about a quiz...quiz...Wait a second. Was he talking about the Midnight Trivia Miracle Quiz? I now remember that Yosuke DID say that to Teddie, when we were about to go home. Could that be Teddie's reason for doing this...? No, the Teddie I know would never go as far to threaten us to play his game. Something's not right here, THAT I can defiantly tell. From the point when we entered the TV world and this school. Why are we in a school? There a lot of questions that needed answers, but for now we need to bend into this fake Teddie''s will. Plus I don't want to anyone know my secret.

"Guys, we must play his game." I said as calmly as I could. I couldn't believe that someone would grab me by the neck, metaphorically speaking.

My comment surprised everyone as Teddie continued. "Well, looks like Sensei understands. I know I wouldn't want anyone to know my secret too, you know."

"Well, I'm off. I'll come back in about 20 minutes, and if I see all of you or even 1 person resisting, expect these pictures be released in school for anyone's eyes to see. Heeheeheeheehee..." Teddie said evilly and then went off with a devious laugh.

For about a minute everyone stood there, unable to speak. I went to look for the envelope with the rules. I found it and looked at it, it read "Rules and Schedule". "Let's see here..." I murmured to myself. I opened the envelope to see there was two sheet of papers. One containing the rules and the other one containing the schedule, just like the fake Teddie said. To break the silence I decided to speak the rules out loud.

"Rules: You must abide by these rules listed below. If you don't, then expect those secrets and shameful memories released to the public." I started. For a few seconds, I looked at everyone and it looked like they were paying close attention, except for Yosuke, who was looking at the floor. I continued reading the rules out loud for everyone.

"Rule 1: You mustn't break anything in here. Rule 2: You can't attack the host. Rule 3: When all the participants are ready, the show will begin immediately. And there will be no turning 4: After one episode is completed, the participants will be given a 30 minute break. Rule 5: You won't able to use your personas. Only in a designated time and place you will able too. Rule 6: You won't able to leave the TV world until all "episodes" are completed. And that's it for the rules." I finished.

I then put the rules page under the schedule page and then began to read it out loud just like I did with rules page.

"The Schedule: Episode 1: The Introduction. Episode 2: The Murder Mystery. Episode 3: The Rescue of the Beautiful Aimi from her Shadow!" I stopped for a second.

There's someone else here? This Aimi...could she be the one who created this school? Teddie once said that the Midnight Channel contains dungeons that materializes the dreams and desires of those trapped inside. So could she be the one who created this school? Then what this fake Teddie has to do with this? Could he have thrown this Aimi girl into the TV for the purposes of this Show? This "puppet master", who's posing as Teddie, is really cruel is what I can say. That's going to be another mystery to solve. But anyway, I continued reading the rest of the schedule out loud.

"Episode 4: King Hunt, Nurse Time, Maid Time and Swimsuit Time!" I stopped again. The crazy name aside, I wonder what it meant. I continued reading again.

"Episode 5: The NEW King's Game! Episode 6: Golden Chef of Inaba. Episode 7: Will be announced after the 6th Episode. And that's it." I said. I wasn't looking forward to any of these "episodes", because just reading the titles of the episodes are giving me the horrible images that are coming to mind. Everyone took their envelopes probably to keep it as a memo. Except Yosuke though, who was just standing there, not moving an inch.

"Hey, why isn't no one protesting! I mean why should we listen to whatever Ted says!" Yosuke finally said something.

"For this one time, I don't want to get on "Teddie's" bad side." Kanji said surprising Yosuke and everyone, he even surprised me. Usually, he would yell and protest if something stupid comes up. He sometimes even goes to the point of violence. Is it because, he had a deep dark secret that he doesn't want anyone to know? That must be it. Also, the way he said Teddie...maybe he thought of the same possibility...about the someone posing as Teddie.

"Kanji? Dude, how can to accept this? Why are you believe the crap he says? He's just bluffing and these pics must be fake." Yosuke further protested.

"What makes you say that, Yosuke-Senpai?" Naoto spoke. Yosuke wanted to say something but then just looked at the floor, defeated.

"These, envelopes with secrets and pictures are very real, because I remember clearly this happening to me once in the past." Naoto said with a slight angry tone. I wonder what had happened to her.

"Naoto, even if this is real, he couldn't release this to the public. I know he was just joking." Yosuke said.

"No, he was serious, because why would he go though all that trouble to get these secrets and then waste them on nothing? I assume so...that is. But anyway, it's like buying a very high priced toy and then not playing with it. Makes sense, no?" Rise stated. She has a good point.

"Yosuke, someone else must be behind this and whoever it is must be in control of this world, I mean doesn't it bother why we can't summon our personas? And the Teddie we all know, couldn't have possibly have done this. He's our friend. I'm sure he wouldn't threaten us by blackmailing into playing his game." I pointed out to Yosuke. Yosuke then nodded and then took the remaining envelope with rules and the schedule.

After a few more minutes, the fake Teddie comes back again, just like he said he would. I noticed he was holding some sort of devise on his hand.

"Well? Have you made up your minds? Will you keep resisting or you would play the game?" The fake Teddie said and then continued. "Not that you had a choice to begin with. Muahahaha!" He laughed evilly.

"Fine, we will play by your rules, but you have to answer me this...why are you doing this?" Yosuke said, looking at "Teddie" with disgust.

"Why?" Teddie repeated the question and then got angry. "I can't tell you that! Nope!"

He calmed down and then continued. "Well it looks like you're all ready. It's time to raise the curtain." He finished and then pressed something on the devise he was holding on to.

Suddenly, without any warning, a large amount of gas came flowing from everywhere around the room. It was so sudden, that I inhaled some of it. Whatever in this gas, it instantly made me weak and sleepy and so I couldn't do anything but to fall on the floor. I don't know what happened to everyone else, but I'm pretty sure the same thing happened to them as well. As I lie on the floor, before passing out, I could hear the fake Teddie say something but I couldn't clearly tell what it was. And so I pass out...

* * *

**Minato's POV**

**Time: ?**

…...

"Huh? Wha? Where am I?" I murmured to myself, still half asleep. I cleared my eyes to get a better view. It was a classroom. My classroom in fact! What was I doing here? Maybe I was sleeping in class and everybody already left? Was I fast asleep or something, that I didn't even hear the school bell? Whatever...I looked to the side my school table to find nothing.

"Huh? Where's my school bag?" I said, confused. What's going on? I looked around the classroom and I didn't find anything. Anything but this weird looking pamphlet. It read...

"_Meet me at the school __hal__l__. Let's get this thing started, everyone!"_

What is this? I was confused. First, someone took my school bag and now this weird pamphlet telling me to go the school hall. Is this Junpei's doing? And let get what started?

I was still half-asleep and I couldn't see very well, so I decided to go the sink to wash my face. There was also a mirror and as I looked at the mirror, the only thing I could see is myself. I noticed something weird. I face was looking rather pale, as if I was sucked out of energy. And then it hit me. I remember now.

"Someone grabbed me and pulled me in, that's how passed out." I said with full of anger. That son of a bitch is gonna pay. But wait a second, didn't that hand came out of a TV? Was I...hallucinating? That must be it! The Dark Hour is sure getting to me. Didn't think I would start hallucinating...

I wonder, is what Junpei said, happened to me too...

* * *

_Brief Flashback_

"_I was telling the rest of the story...that I don't want too bring up again..." Junpei said with a sad tone. So there was more? I knew it...and I think I know what's he going to say..._

"_Ugh, dude...well, when I was looking at the girl, someone saw me and well...knocked me out..." Junpei said, holing his head. I assume he was hit in the head. Why though? Also I did not expect him getting hit in the head. _

"_And then, the weird part is that I found myself lying on a school desk in my classroom. I was tired and didn't want to do anything else and so I decided to go back to the dorm." Junpei finished. It is kinda weird, why would someone hit a guy and then carry him to his classroom._

* * *

I wonder...if it was the same guy...Just who is this guy...hitting us until we pass out and then carries us to our classrooms. That was really weird.

I looked again at the weird looking pamphlet and read it contents.

"_Meet me at the school __hal__l__. Let's get this thing started, everyone!" _I crumpled up the pamphlet and thrown it into the trash.

I headed out my classroom and headed straight to the exit, forgetting about my school bag. I reached the exit and as I was getting closer and closer to the door.

With a smile on my face I reached out the handle and pulled it. Nothing. Not even a budge. I tried again and again...but the result was the same.

"What the hell?" I questioned the door. What was going on? Why was the main door locked? Ugh...Don't tell me...I looked at the time...it was 7 p.m...Huh? What was i doing in school so late?

"_Meet me at the school __hal__l__. Let's get this thing started, everyone!"_

Do I really have to go to the school hall? Dammit...it doesn't look like I have choice, but whoever this is, he better let me out of here. And so, I gone straight to the school hall.

As I was heading there, I took some of my time to take a look out the window. It was rather peaceful outside, but I had a weird felling of confinement. It felt like I was in a completely different world. I don't know why I felt that way. I shrugged of the feeling and continued walking to the school hall.

I finally reached the school hall and as I opened the door to the school hall, I saw it. I saw everyone and by everyone, I meant my friends, lying on the floor. I saw, Junpei, Yukari, Mitsuru, Akihiko, Fuuka, Aigis and even Ken.

"Wake up, everyone!" I shouted as loud as I could. As I did that, it looks like everyone began to yawn and putting themselves into a sitting position.

"Huh? Where am I?" Junpei yawns and said sleepily. And then after Yukari started freaking out. "Huh!? What am I doing here sleeping on a floor!?"

"Calm down, guys!" I yelled at everyone so that they could calm down. Everyone looked at me and Mitsuru then stood up and spoke to me. "What is the meaning of this, Minato?" She said in stern voice and then looked around the school hall.

"That's what I would like to know myself..." I said, not knowing how to answer her. Then Akihiko stood up and so did everyone else.

"This looks like our school..." Akihiko pointed out.

"Guys, what are you doing here, passed out on floor?" I asked them, probably rhetorical question. They all just shook their heads. It seems they don't remember. I told them what happened to me. I also told them the main door is locked and that I should go here for some reason. Everyone looked at me in disbelief for some reason.

As they all stood there, trying to get their bearings until suddenly someone's voice ringed out in the school hall.

"_Hee hee hee...You all here now!" _

Huh? It sounded like it was from the podium and so I came to face it as so did the others. It looked like teddy bear, with a white suit, a white top hat and a red bow tie, that much I can say.

"Who the hell are you?" Junpei right away asked the teddy bear-looking thing.

"My name is Ted Teddieson and I'm the host of this show of what I call "The Hysterical Midnight Show!" The bear pridefully said.

"Show? Who are you and what we were doing sleeping on our school's floor?" Akihiko impatiently said.

The bear suddenly got mad. "I already told you, I'm Ted Teddieson!" He made a short pause and continued. "And to answer to why you here, well, isn't it obvious, you're the participants!" The bear said nonchalantly.

That came to me as shock. Participants, what is he talking about? Why is he doing this to us?

I reached out to my breast pocket to find nothing. I then tried the other pockets and ahh...I found it. My phone, I can use this to call for help. Obviously.

"What are you doing with that?" Ted said. It looks like he noticed me holding my phone and dialing a number.

"What's it looks like? I'm calling for help!" I said. I dialed the local police number and...nothing...I then only noticed that my cell phone had no service at all. What? How could this be? Did someone cut out a telephone pole or something? I looked at the bear, who was smiling wickedly and so I ask him.

"Hey, why is there no service on the phone?" I asked him, almost yelling.

"Hee hee hee...Would you believe me, If I were to tell you are in a completely different world?" The bear laughed and then completely said unbelievable words.

"Every person with a right mind, would never believe that crap!" Yukari pointed out angrily.

"Oh yeah? Then how do you explain the Dark Hour's existence?" Ted rebutted.

His words came to me as a complete shock...How? Just how did he know of the Dark Hour's existence? The only ones knew me, Ikutski, the rest of the S.E.E.S and some from the Kirijo group. Whoever this is, he must know somethings about us too, because the only people I see here are from SEES.

"How do you know about the Dark Hour? I demand an answer." Mitsuru immediately asked and was really demanding of an answer. We all did anyway.

"Long Story, and it really doesn't matter now. What matters now is that you read the rules of the show." As he said that, 8 envelopes suddenly came falling down from above.

"Hey don't ignore our question and plus I can't speak for everybody here, but do not intend to play your game show or whatever?" I yelled at the bear.

"Ooooh, is that sooooo?" The bear said in a mischievous and menacing tone. He then laughed evilly and suddenly again 8 envelopes came falling for above. It fell right to my feet, and without thinking, I picked it up to check what's inside.

The envelope read "Minato's Deep Dark Secrets and Shameful Memories"...What the hell? I opened the envelope rashly to see if what it said was true. I noticed that everyone was looking at me. I continued tearing down the envelope until I saw something truly horrifying. There was note and a few pictures. One of them, it shows me in middle of sleeping.

"_Minato Arisato's true name is Makoto Yuki. He drools when he sleeps. He likes putting a gun on the side of his own head just for fun. Wonder what will people think of you, if this were to release to public."_

What does he mean by "if this were to release to public". I looked at the pictures which were zero to impossible to get. The question "how did he get these"? Keeps popping up in my mind. One showed me sleeping peacefully and admittedly drooling and the other was when I was in the middle of summoning my persona. And this envelope also contained a printed out copy of my birth certificate, showing my real name as Makoto Yuki.

That said, I looked at everyone who was confused at my possibly very horrified look. And then Junpei asked me. "Hey, is everything okay, dude?" He said with a concerned voice.

I simply pointed at the envelopes with my index finger that just fallen to the floor a few minutes ago and said in a nerve wracking tone. "Open these up, everyone."

Everyone listened to me and looked at the envelopes, first a look of disbelief, but then when they opened the envelope and saw what's inside, their face instantly went from disbelief to shock. Only Aigis remained unemotional.

"H-how did you acquire these!?" Akihiko immediately asked the bear.

"You can be surprised what you can find out on the human world, boxer." Ted giggled evilly.

"Whatever, I'm sure someone will come looking for us!" Yukari said. For some reason, I think that highly unlikely.

"Didn't you hear me earlier? I said, we are in completely different world! I mean haven't you all noticed the air in this place is different from your world and the "outside" didn't change a bit?" Ted pointed out. Now that I think about it, when I did feel it when I was looking out the window, and even now, it feels the same.

"So you mean, the hand that came out the TV wasn't a hallucination and in actuality that was your hand, who pulled me inside the TV?" I had to ask. Everyone looked at me like I was a psycho. I know, it sounds crazy.

"Bingo, blue boy!" Ted congratulated me and continued. "Yep. I pulled you in inside the TV, so yeah...you're in...the TV world!" Ted declared and then laughed.

I wasn't about to believe it, but he really just proved it to me. The school hall began to shake and than began to transform. A few moments later and the school hall was no more and now it was studio-like room full of old TV's. It was like I'd seen our school transform into Tartarus. How could this Ted person had so much power that he could completely change the rooms, and do it really fast no less? After a few seconds of showing us that studio-like room full of TV's, he quickly changed it back to the school hall.

"So, believe me now?" Ted said smiling somewhat arrogantly. Everyone was in shock. How could you not be? After seeing something unbelievable. Then again, why am I shocked? This Ted guy continued, laughing. "Hahahah...the look on your faces is just priceless! Anyway, I'll take that as a yes."

A few moments passed by, everyone was still in shock, including me and Ted spoke again.

"Anyway, back on track. In the next 30 minutes, if everyone still going to resist, I'm afraid, I will post _these_ to the public and everyone will know you secrets...hehehe..." The bear said menacingly and went off, laughing.

Everyone still stood there, and Junpei decided to speak. "H-hey, w-what are going t-to do?" Junpei was clearly stuttering.

"Well, we have 2 options. Number 1 is that we play along our kidnappers rules until we find out a way out of here and 2 is that we keep resisting to play his game and see if he was serious about showing the Tatsumi Port Island our secrets." I said. I wished that we more options.

"Dude, why don't we just...burn these..." Junpei suggested, looking at his envelope.

"Then there would be no point to it, Junpei, because he obviously made copies. I mean, why would he just give these envelopes to us?" I said, rejecting his offer.

"Yeah, I guess you have a point." Junpei looked at the floor.

"What I'm most interested in is how our kidnapper know so much about us and the Dark Hour?" Fuuka asked.

"I'm sure will found out, Fuuka. He apparently doesn't want to answer our questions. He also said, that we are in a "different world". For now though, we have to play his game, because I don't think any of you want your secrets reveled to the public?" I responded. I looked at everyone and they nodded. Ken looked a little troubled.

"What's wrong, Ken?" I asked him out of concern. I few moments passed and he then looked everyone and finally spoke.

"Umm, I assume this is gonna take a day or so, and I was wondering what are we going to about Tartarus and the shadows, because it was October 29th when we got abducted, and I mean, I heard the next full moon is going to be on November 3 in which means another big shadow." Ken pointed out.

That was a big problem. Today is probably the 30th of October, so that means we have 3 days left including this one. We needed to hurry.

"We just have to hurry then and complete the kidnapper's game." Akihiko said, taking the words out of mouth.

"Whoa, Senpai! We don't even know what to do!" Junpei indicated. After hearing that, I quickly looked for the rules with my name...ah...I found it...everyone did the same.

I opened up the envelope and saw two sheets of paper. I looked at both of them and saw the first one being the rules page and the other being the schedule page. I started out with the rules page. It read...

_Rules: You must abide by these rules listed below. If you break the rules, then expect those secrets and shameful memories released to the public._

_Rule 1: You mustn't break anything in here. _

_Rule 2: You can't attack the host. Ted Teddieson._

_Rule 3: When all the participants are ready, the show will begin immediately. And there will be no turning back._

_Rule 4: After one episode is completed, the participants will be given a 30 minute break. _

_Rule 5: You won't able to use your personas. Only in a designated time and place you will be able too. _

_Rule 6: You won't able to leave the TV world until all "episodes" are completed. _

_Special Rule for Minato Arisato: At some point, you will be given a hard decision, and when that happens, you will be forced to choose. _

Okay, what does this special rule mean? Hard decision? I have a bad feeling about it...

And now looked at the schedule page and it read...

_Episode 1: The Introduction. _

_Episode 2: The Murder Mystery. _

_Episode 3: "The Rescue of the Beautiful Aimi from her Shadow!"_

_Episode 4: "King Hunt, Nurse Time, Maid Time and Swimsuit Time!"_

_Episode 5: The NEW King's Game! _

_Episode 6: Golden Chef of Inaba. _

_Episode 7: Will be announced after the 6th Episode..._

Hmmmm...All I got to say it is that only episode 2 sounded legit...the rest was rather odd...

That said, I wasn't looking forward to any of this...we discussed about some things about who could be the kidnapper...but with no clues, we couldn't think of anyone who might fit the profile...We accounted the possibility of this kidnapper working with Strega...but that was highly unlikely, to me anyway. After a few minutes passed Ted Teddieson came back to the school hall like he said he would.

"Well, have you made your decision?" Ted mocked us. He knows better than everyone that we had no choice.

"Yeah..." I said bitterly. I noticed that he was holding something, something like a device with buttons.

"Weeeeeelll...if all of you are ready, then I will see in the next couple of minutes..." He said and then pressed a button on his device.

Suddenly without any warning I passed out...a large amount of gas flowed down from everywhere and I passed out. I felt tired and sleepy...And I...passed out...I hope when I wake up...this will come to be just a dream...but that was definitely highly unlikely...

* * *

_Episode 1: The Introduction [End]_

_[Next] Episode 2: The Murder Mystery_

* * *

**Damn, over 9000 words. A loooooong first chapter...to be perfectly honest I did not expect to write this much into the 1st chapter...So I hope you guys can show me your thoughts about this chapter by reviewing it. Please? I would be most happy...**

**If you are interested what will happen next...well the second chapter might or might not take longer...sooooo...yeah...but I will work on it soon enough...What I mean is, I will take a 1 day break and after that I shall continue this story...Farewell everyone!**


	2. Episode 2: The Murder Mystery: Part 1

**Hello, hello, hello! Welcome to the next chapter of this surprisingly, so far, long word fanfic...Anyway, yeah...First of all, I'd like to apologize for the long wait...it literally took me a month to finish and then publish this. Mind you, I had other things to take care of.**

**There something's I'd like to say before I start writing and that is:**

**1. This chapter was heavily inspired by the games like Danganronpa, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney and other...I really like those types of games and if you haven't played them...I highly recommend you do.**

**2. Thank you for all those who reviewed and followed my story, so far. I hope I won't disappoint you with this one.**

* * *

_Episode 2: The Murder Mystery: Minato's Route_

_Act 1: Before the Murder_

* * *

**Minato's POV**

Hmmm...ughh...What happened to me?..."Oh, that's right..." I remembered.

I remembered that the bear "Ted Teddieson"...made me inhale some sort of gas...and then I passed out...I wondered why he did that.

"H...he...h...y!" I heard a faint voice. It sounded like a girl...Who could this be?

"Hey...w...ke...u..." She said. It still sounded faint, but I could hear it...what was she-.

And to interrupt my thoughts, the girl loudly yelled in my ear. "WAKE UP!"

"Aghhh!" I screamed and fell to the floor, landing on my butt, hard. What? Was I sleeping? I rubbed my eyes, to get a better view. It appears I was still in the school and I was sleeping on the desk and the room looked like...a classroom. Before I could look around any more, the girl said something again.

"Finally, you're awake." She said in a relieving tone in her voice. I looked at her. She was wearing a pink sweater jacket, a loose red ribbon and a black mini skirt. I quickly looked up to see her face and to no surprise, it was Yukari's face.

"Huh? Yukari? Where-?" I decided to ask her where were we, but she quickly cut me off.

"In a classroom. Anyway, we gotta hurry, everyone's waiting." Yukari said in rushing tone.

"Waiting where?" I asked groggily, as I stood up from the floor and started to dust off my pants with my hands. "In the student council room." Yukari said and then looked like as if she remembered something.

"Oh, yeah...I guess you didn't hear the bear's announcement..." She said. Wait what? What announcement? Did something happen?

"What announcement?" I asked. "I'll explain as we go there. We need to hurry. She then turned to door and walked off the room as I followed her, holding my head.

As we walked the hallways of this fake school, Yukari began to explain the current situation. Apparently, guys talked with Ted Teddieson and began to say that made a false start and so the real "episode" hasn't started yet, reasons being that we didn't get chance to explore the school.

I was confused at that so did the others, because we already knew the school structure. Ted said that the "controls" the school to his desire. Meaning he could move rooms to other places, add new rooms, lock or unlock doors and even increase the length of hallways. He said that he made the first floor inaccessible.

Ted then said he give us 50 minutes to explore and then something will happen. He didn't tell Yukari or the others what this "something" is though. And that's all he said.

"And right now, we have I guess 35 minutes, before this "something" happens." Yukari said, walking without stopping. There's something I didn't get.

"I have a question. When you spoke with Ted, did you ask him why he used the gas to make us fall asleep?" I asked, there was brief moment of silence, but then Yukari answered.

"Believe me, we asked...but he just said he had reasons which he won't tell because that would "spoil the show". He said he won't do it again, but..." Yukari annoyingly responded. She was obviously angry the bear, because he made us inhale the sleep inducing gas, but I can't say, I am...rather I didn't care. I just wanted to rest for a bit...I don't know why, I just did. When I first woke up here, I guess I already wasn't feeling top notch...Is it because of this "world" odd atmosphere? Even though this feels like Tartarus, I'm still feeling a bit "off"...

While I was thinking to myself, I saw Yukari suddenly turn to the right, and the was door which read "student council". Yukari said this is where everyone should be and so she opens the door.

As I and Yukari walked in the room, I saw everyone else standing there. A clear as day, relieved look were on their faces.

"You finally came back, Yukari and with Minato no less." Akihiko said with a relieved tone.

"Told you I'd find him, anyway how much time do we have left?" Yukari said with prideful look.

"About 30 minutes, or so...shall we?" Mitsuru said and looked at Yukari and then at me. Yukari quickly answered.

"Don't worry, I explained him the situation. So, now everyone here, what did you talk about?" Yukari reassured and then asked Mitsuru.

"Aw, yes. Sense we have about 30 minutes before this "something" happens. I suggest we split up and search the rooms we found." Mitsuru proposed. I gave a confused look. Yukari noticed and gave me and explanation. "Oh, yeah, forgot to tell you. When we were looking for you, we found 3 open rooms which are: Classroom 2-A, a lounge and a faculty office. All other rooms were locked tight."

I nodded in gesture of understanding. Mitsuru then continued her proposal. "As I was saying, we should split up and this is how I suggest we do it. Iori and Akihiko should investigate the faculty office, Aigis and Ken should investigate the other classroom, and Takeba, Yamagishi and I will investigate the lounge. Any objections?" Mitsuru inquired. Everyone nodded in agreement.

"What about me?" I asked. She didn't mention me so I had to ask. Not that it really mattered to me, I wanted to go solo anyway.

"Oh, well, that is for you decide, Minato." She simply answered. I wonder..."Have you guys, searched this room?" I asked.

"Yeah, but if you want to investigate this room on your own, you shouldn't bother, we searched the place from top to bottom, and we found nothing useful." Ahihiko answered.

"Well, what if you missed something? I think I'll search this room here for a little bit, and then I'll go check up on you guys." I told them as i made up my mind.

"All right, if everyone's ready, then we should go. Also after we completed our investigation, let's meet up here and report our findings." Mitsuru proposed. Me and everyone else nodded in agreement. After that, everyone headed out to their designated place, except me.

First, I decided to search the place thoroughly. I was hoping they'd miss something, but it appears they were telling the truth. There's nothing of use here. None. That's disappointing. 5 minutes passed. I decided to go the open classroom 2-A, where Ken and Aigis should be.

I made it to the classroom. I went in and right away, I was greeted by both Aigis and Ken. I straight away asked the most obvious question. "Have you guys find anything useful?"

They shook their heads. "Nothing good yet, were still looking, but it would be great if you'd help us." Ken suggested. I agreed and so I started looking. I decided to start with the classroom locker. I opened up the locker and to see...nothing...Not that I'm surprised.

I then moved to searching the desk drawers where Aigis is. I opened up one of the desk drawers, and to my surprise, I found something. It wasn't anything like I expected. It was just...cards...but not any normal playing card...it looked similar to the one of the arcana cards. One the back...it reads "memento mori" down below and has a black and white mask which represents a persona on the front it shows what arcana represents.

There were 4 cards. There was The Fool, then Star, then the World and finally Death. Ken and Aigis noticed I was holding the cards in my hands and decide to go have a look.

"Aren't those arcana cards? What do they mean?" Ken asked me. I kept looking at the cards and replied. "I'm not sure, but I hope they are a clue of some sort. I hope you don't mind, but I will take these with me."

"Ok." Ken responded. I've gotta find out what these cards mean. I pretty sure he would want us to do something with these. I shoved them into my pocket.

It now occurred to me, that only Ken was talking to me and Aigis was silent. I looked at her and asked with concerning tone. "Is everything alright, Aigis?"

She looked up to me with a confused look and then replied with her usual monotone. "What do you mean, Minato-san?"

"Oh, that just you haven't said a word since I started investigating with Ken and you. I was wondering if something, was on your mind." I explained. She looked down.

"Well, I worry that we won't escape in time, before the full moon." Aigis said. I put my hand on her robotic shoulder. She looked at me. I then gave her a reassuring look.

"Hey, come on, you shouldn't worry much, it's not like you. I'm positive that we will escape in time." I reassured. She then gave me a bright smile and happily said. "Yes. You're right."

"Alright, well, I'm going to check up on others, see you guys in the student council." I said, before walking off the classroom. Where should I go next? The lounge sounds interesting enough, being it sounded like a new room created by Ted. So I decided to go there.

While I was heading there, I found another room that lead to the library. It was locked of course. But not just locked with a simple lock. Next to the door was a monitor showing "Enter Password" There were two types of pass codes I would need to enter. They were both 8-digit. One with numbers from 0 to 9 and the other with letters. So, pretty much, I need to find and enter two passwords for this library door to open. I assume that is. I don't know if there is a password around.

I took out the four cards from my pocket and I looked at them. I then looked at the 8-digit password. Hmmm...I understand the numbers, but why the letters? Maybe it has to do something with names of the arcana? I decided to think about that later. It's not enough to go on anyway. It just hit me, how could the others have not mention this? Did they not see it, perhaps? Or have they forgotten? Well whatever.

I continued to heading down to the lounge. I made it to the lounge, and as I open the door, I was greeted by the girls. I looked around and damn...it really did look like a lounge. It had a bar, a nice sofa and even liquor. It reminded of VIP room in Escapade in Paulownia Mall. I immediately started by asking.

"Have you girls found anything useful?" They all shook their heads. I guess not. I said I'd help them search, and so I did. I approached the sofa, first and sat on it. And it was really...comfy.

Mitsuru looked at me sternly. "Minato, I don't think it's that time for relaxing." She said in a stern voice. I pouted. "Aw, come on, Mitsuru...Don't act as though you're not tired. Hey, how about you sit next to me?" I said in a charming tone. I have no idea why I said that, the words just kind of escaped on their own. She looked down, rather flattered, and quietly said. "Well, yes I'm tired, but..." She then walked off and looked at the tables. I'm guessing that's a "no".

I stood up from the sofa and approached the bar next. It was a normal bar with a mixer, bunch of drinking glasses and alcohol. Or I assume, that's alcohol. Well, might as well try asking one of the girls. "Hey, Fuuka...Would you like to have a drink with me?" I said again, in charming tone. Still don't why..."H-huh? Ummm...I..." Fuuka hesitated.

But then suddenly, without any warning, someone smacked me on the head. Ow! I looked to see who it was and it was Yukari...who was looking rather angry. "Do you think this is a good time to get wasted?" Yukari exclaimed.

I smiled nervously and answered. "H-hey, I was just kidding around. You didn't have to take me seriously." Yukari walked off to the sofa and made a "tch" sort of noise. Fuuka just laughed nervously and awkwardly. I searched around the liquor shelf...and I found nothing of importance other than alcohol. Bummer.

"Minato, Yamagishi and Takeba...can you come here for bit." Mitsuru suddenly called us out. She was standing right next to the wall and there on it was a poster of an idol, I think I've seen her somewhere before. And then it hit me, it was "Risette" or so Junpei calls her. But anyway...

"What is it?" I asked calmly. She looked at the poster and the she looked back at me.

"I think there's something behind this poster..." Mitsuru said with certainty in her voice. "So why don't you rip it off and see what's behind it?" I replied nonchalantly.

"I'll let you do the honors." Mitsuru devilishly smiled at me.

"Why me!?" I exclaimed. It didn't take long for Mitsuru to "answer". "Oh, well, you're the only male here in this room." I'm pretty sure that does not qualify for an answer, but whatever.

"Fine." I groaned and stepped forward to face the poster. I began to rip it off little by little from the upper-right corner, until I finally got it off. Phew. That actually wasn't that bad. I mean, the worst case scenario would be is when I ripped off the poster, I would set of a trap of some sort. Like a bomb suddenly going off, blowing you to pieces.

Anyway, I got off the poster to see there was a small "empty space" circular hole in the wall. It wasn't that deep though. And it wasn't empty. There was a really thin notebook here which should had only 3 pages and two of them are have been ripped off it seems.

"Ummm...What is that? A notebook?" Fuuka spoke. "It sure looks like it, but it only has one page and on the front of the notebook it says "The Fool's Journey". What do you think that means?" Mitsuru questioned. Hmmm...I decided to read the one page. It's numbering is 3. I figure it's the end of this book since it doesn't look like there more pages that goes after the 3. Anyway, here's it contents. I cleared my throat, before reading out loud the contents of the third page.

"Let's see here..._"Suddenly a mysterious black figure appeared before Fool and said in a menacing tone. "You're a fool..." He then took something out of himself and it looked like a scythe. "The only wish I will grant you is...death..." He quietly said before swinging down the scythe on Fool. The last moments of Fool was how he should have listened to the old man and him regretting ever coming here...the end..._and that's all there is on this page_."_ I finished. Damn...way to spoil the story. That said, I have no idea what this means...

Wait, there is something...I took out the four cards from my pocket. Fool, Star, The World and Death. I only looked at the Fool and Death cards. I wonder if they have something to do with the notebook and with the password for the library door. I won't know that until I know the rest of the story. "Girls, can I take the notebook with me?" All three of them nodded.

"Well, it looks like there nothing else here, beside this notebook we found. I'm thinking about heading out, do you girls wanna come with?" I offered. Mitsuru shook her head. "I think I'll stay here, I want to be sure I searched everything in this room." Mitsuru said. Yukari and Fuuka agreed with Mitsuru and stayed in the lounge as well.

As I finally left the lounge, I straight away headed to the faculty office, where Akihiko and Junpei should be investigating. I got to the faculty office and they greeted me as well. For the third time, I ask the same question. "Guys, did you find anything of use here?"

Akihiko and Junpei looked at each other and then Junpei responded, scratching his head. "We searched the whole place, and didn't find anything good, though we did find something out of the ordinary, but we really don't know what it means though or if it useful or not." He then took something of his pocket. He was holding a 2 pieces of paper and 4 cards. Wait...

"Can I take a look?" I said calmly. Junpei handed to me the 2 pieces of paper and 4 cards. I first took a look at the cards. They were...Tower, Fortune, Moon and Hermit. If I add the other 4 cards...that would make 8 cards in total. I then looked at the 2 pieces of paper. Hmmm...Just as I thought, it the rest of the story...and it was pretty short. I decided to read it to only myself. So here's the beginning...

_There once lived a boy named "Fool", and he always was in an adventure sort of mood. He traveled across the world, to find a legendary tower called "Peace". The legend has it, that if you reach the top of the tower, you can acquire a star named "Peak", which grants you any wish. _

_Fool made that his goal, and went off with his dog friend named "God". Fool's wish was rather simple, all he ever wanted was love and fortune. Fool searched and searched and while doing it, he came across an old man Hermit. "Where are heading, youngling?" The old man Hermit curiously asked. Fool told him that he was searching for the tower named "Peace" and the legendary star named "Peak". The old man got agitated and yelled at Fool. "You fool, you must not go there! Only death will await you there!". Fool did not consider to the old man's warning and continued searching. He couldn't stop, he determination was strong. He searched and searched and searched endlessly for the tower, but he couldn't find it, and ended up getting lost in result. _

Here ends the first page...Wonder what happens next...

_Fool began to lose hope that he could never find the tower, until he saw something like bright light from the sky, something...green. What he saw was unbelievable, the moon got really big and green and not too far away from him, he saw a huge tower. "Have I finally made it here?" The Fool questioned his friend "God". He simply barked and waggled his tail in reply. _

_When Fool reached the entrance doors, he literally couldn't stop shaking from the excitement. He opened the doors and as expected, he found a long staircase, leading only up. He hurriedly climbed up the stairs as fast as he could. _

_He thought he would finally have his wish come true and when he was almost at the end of the staircase, he stopped, the old man's words flowed back to him. "You fool, you must not go there! Only death will await you there!". Was the old man telling Fool the truth or was he lying? There was only one way for Fool to find out..._

_He continued climbing up the stairs and there he was...on the top of the tower...and there he saw it, the treasure he was seeking, it was right there in front of him. As he was getting closer and closer to it, something unexpected happened. _

And here ends the second page...The rest is just in the notebook the girls and I found in the lounge.

_Suddenly a mysterious black figure appeared before Fool and said in a menacing tone. "You're a fool..." He then took something out of himself and it looked like a scythe. "The only wish I will grant you is...death..." He said before swinging down the scythe on Fool. The last moments of Fool was how he should have listened to the old man and him regretting ever coming here...THE END_

Now that I finished the story, I'm still not sure what it means, though. Could it be a hint? Because in the story, they mentioned all of these 8 cards names. Well what I do know, it that the Arcana cards must be the key to figuring out the password to open the door to the library.

"Ummm, Minato? Are you awake?" Junpei snapped his fingers in front of my face again. I put the cards and the papers into my pocket. Akihiko and Junpei didn't seem to notice, or they did notice but they didn't care.

"Huh? Did you say something?" I asked. I wasn't listening to anything at all.

"C'mon, man. We were talking about how we should go back to the student council." Junpei frowned in annoyance. Oh, I guess it was almost time. But...

"Wait, have you guys searched the room completely?" I said. I kinda knew there would nothing else in this room the would be useful, but you can never be too sure.

"Like I told you we searched the room, from top to bottom." Junpei said, still annoyed. Akihiko continued. "But if you want to search the room for yourself, go ahead. Just be quick about it though." Akihiko said before heading off with Junpei to the student council.

I needed to think about things. Things like, who is this "Ted Teddieson" or whoever behind him. Why were we brought here? What's this "Hysterical Midnight Show" goal and/or purpose? And where exactly are we?

Did I piss someone off that they do this? That's seems to be the most plausible possibility, but last time I checked, I wasn't on anyone's bad side, well except Mr. Ekoda, cause he's an asshole like that. Or could this be a dream from which I can't wake up?

The more I think about it, the more questions appear. I hope we find answers soon. That said, I should hurry to the student council. Everyone must be waiting.

I headed out to the student council, and I felt like stopping for some reason. For whatever reason I had a bad feeling. I decided to shrug it off and contained heading to the student council. As I finally made it to the door, I opened it, to find only 5 people inside. Aigis, Ken, Junpei, Ahihiko and Yukari.

"You finally came." Junpei said. I looked at Yukari. "Where's Mitsuru and Fuuka?" I asked her.

"Oh, Mitsuru-senpai said she wanted to talk about something with Fuuka, I decided to the student council." Yukari replied. I see, so we just have to wait here for a bit. I wanted to talk about the library door, but I wanted to ALL of them to be here, so I didn't say anything at all. The room was silent for about 10 minutes and Mitsuru and Fuuka still hasn't came back. I decided to break the silence. "What's talking them so long?" I said irritatingly.

Yukari looked at me and responded. "Well, when Mitsuru-senpai asked Fuuka about that something she wanted to talk about, I saw she had a pretty serious expression."

That doesn't really answer my question. Then spoke Akihiko, he had a pretty worried tone. "Hey, isn't it already, past time for the "something" that bear mentioned."

Damn, that's right! How could I have forgotten that? Something must have happened to Mitsuru and Fuuka.

"What do you suggest we do, Akihiko-san?" Aigis asked. Akihiko started heading for the exit.

"Let's go look for them!" Akihiko yelled before rushing off the room and heading right.

"Wait, Senpai!" Junpei shouted and followed Akihiko. "Well, sense Akihiko is so determined, we might as well go look for them too. Yukari and Ken go search for them in the faculty office. Aigis and I will go look for them in the classroom 2-A." I suggested. Everyone nodded in agreement, though I swear I saw Yukari a bit displeased.

Anyway, Aigis and I rushed to the classroom. We yelled their names, but there's no response. As we reached the classroom, I was a bit hesitant to open the door and Aigis ended up opening the door. But I wish she hadn't. Because there awaited me...a real nightmare...

…

…...

…...

…...

"AAAAAAAAAGH!?" I screamed in shock and almost fell on my behind. How else could I have reacted? Before me, in the red puddle of blood, Mitsuru lie dead on the floor...wait...maybe she's still alive...I ran quickly to her to check her pulse...nothing...not even a bump...she was really dead.

I froze. I didn't know what to do...What happened? Why did Mitsuru die? I looked at Aigis, and even she was surprised. Before long, I heard rushing footsteps...someone of the group must have heard my scream.

It was Yukari and Ken. "Hey, is something wr-!" Yukari started but immediately stopped at the sight before her. Ken was equally shocked. "What the hell's going here?" Yukari exclaimed. Aigis and I didn't answer. I couldn't speak. I then heard another pair of footsteps. It must be Akihiko and Junpei.

"Guys, we found-" Akihiko started, but like Yukari and Ken, they stopped dead in their tracks. Their faces immediately were covered in shock and I think I see their legs wobble. I couldn't blame them...

And then, to add insult into injury, the damn bear came.

"Well, well, well...looks like someone's finally been murdered." Ted said in an ominous tone. Well, no shit! Thanks for stating the obvious. Wait...murdered? I then remembered.

That's right! This is the second episode and the title said "The Murder Mystery". I have completely forgotten about that. Not that it made me happy...Because, it's murder. REAL murder not a fake one. I guess that's why I've forgotten about it. It's because, I didn't take it seriously. But anyway, while I was thinking to myself. I saw Akihiko suddenly ran to Ted with his fist high. Holy crap! I need to stop him!

But it was too late, Akihiko already punched him, or tried too at least. Ted dodged Akihiko's punch by leaping up and into one of the fake school's desks.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa...calm down there, bro!" Ted suddenly growled at Akihiko. Akihiko in return started yelling. "Calm down!? Mitsuru is dead! How are we supposed to be calm!?

"Calm down, Akihiko!" I roared at Akihiko. My words seem to take affect as he started to calm down a tiny bit. I then decided to ask him the question everyone of us want to ask.

"What is the meaning of this? Who killed Mitsuru? Was it you?" I asked impatiently.

Ted just looked at with annoyance. "Did you already forget? This is the second episode of the show which is called a murder mystery!" He roared but then continued in a calm manner. "As to answer to who killed Crimson...well, the fairly simple...one of you killed her." He said that in a menacing tone again.

His words were a shock to us. The killer is one of us? That's outrageous and ridiculous!

"Like hell someone of us killed Mitsuru!" Yukari exclaimed and not soon after, Junpei continued. "Yeah, Mitsuru-senpai is our friend! You're the one who killed her!" He yelled.

Ted just looked at Junpei in irritation. "That would be a plausible possibility, but I'm afraid you're beary wrong, Stupei! Tell me, why would I kill one of my participants?" Ted said and questioned. Junpei got aggravated by that nickname Yukari gave him.

"Well, isn't that part of your show? To kill one of your "participants" and then blame it someone else. Plus, you did say something would happen after 50 minutes or so, and it already past that time." Junpei pointed out.

"Oh...nice memory! Maybe you're not that stupid after all." Teddie complemented Junpei, but Junpei doesn't seem to care. Ted then continued. "Like I said, I didn't kill Crimson. I'm the host, so if I killed her, then that would be plainly obvious and boring. The episode would hold no meaning." Ted explained.

"Let me guess, you know who's the killer?" Ken spoke in an irritated tone. Ted seemed happy after the statement. "Ding ding ding! Right you are, Shorty! Yes, I do know who did it." Ted applauded. Before I could ask who is the killer, Ted right away said with his arms in the air. "And don't even bother asking me. I won't tell you. I mean, what's the point this episode if I had told you."

"So you want us to find the killer who is someone of us?" I said. Everyone looked a bit shocked at my statement. "Bingo, blue boy! And you have a 5 hour limit to do so. Let me explain."

He took a deep breath and began explaining. "One of you is the killer and you have 5 hour limit to confront him! If you don't, then the killer will escape and the rest will be stuck here forever. If you do, then the killer will be..."executed" as Crimson would put it."

…...Everyone was silent...

"Well, I'll be off watching you progress!" Ted said excitedly and went off but stopped. "Oh, and before I forget..." He took out something from...somewhere. Anyway it looked like a file and so he tossed them to us. "Those are autopsy reports for you. It's about Crimson's time of death, cause of death, ect., ect., you know, those in TV detective shows or whatever." Ted explained and went off to somewhere, saying goodbye and wishing us luck.

Everyone was still silent. After I guess a minute I decided to speak up. "Well, we should start investigating, I mean what choice do we have." No one responded. Aigis, Ken, Yukari, Akihiko, Junpei...all of them were still shocked. Well, it's natural to be shocked, and if what Ted said is true, that is he's not the killer and the real killer is one of us. Then...

I looked at everyone. Aigis...Ken...Junpei...Akihiko...Yukari...we still didn't find Fuuka...and I know for certain that I'm not the killer. Is really one of them is Mitsuru's killer?

Aigis suddenly spoke. "Minato-san is right. We have no other choice, but to investigate. If we don't find Mitsuru-san's killer, then all of us will be locked up here...forever...and the killer will escape. And I'm not assuming that it's one of us, there could be a possibility that there's another person here." Aigis reasoned.

Everyone looked up at her. I guess they understood. Aigis continued. "Also, we should work together, we shouldn't doubt each other." She was right, we haven't thought the other possibilities. She was also right on working together too, we can't doubt each other, not until we find some kind of evidence that is. Ted said that the killer is one of US. I wonder if he was telling the truth or not...

If there's another person lurking around here, I need to know why Mitsuru had to die, but I don't think I will like the answer. If I don't...I don't think the truth will come to light and I don't think I will accept her death...

Right now, there's only one way to find out...and that's by...investigating...

* * *

_Act 2: After the Murder: Investigation_

* * *

First, let's see this autopsy report file...I pick up the autopsy file from the floor and as I open the file, I saw not much is written in there. Anyway it read...

_Victim: Mitsuru Kirijo_

_Time of death: Between 2:30 p.m __-__ 2:40 p.m._ I quickly look at the time and it was 2:50 p.m.

_The corpse was discovered in classroom 2-A. The victim died lying on the floor._

_Cause of death: Multiple stab wounds on the back._

_Murder weapon: Long ice pick with a wooden handle._

That's it. It's not much, but at least I know when she died and how she died and what the murder weapon is. "Before we begin, I think we should look after Mitsuru...body...you know like watchmen. You never know when the killer might show up and temper with the evidence and whatnot." Akihiko suggested, he was still a little pissed but I'm glad that he calmed down. Everyone seem to agree.

"That's a good idea." Junpei praised Akihiko. Akihiko continued. "And Junpei, you're with me."

Junpei got surprised. "What? Why should I?" I was curious as well.

"Because, two men is better than one." Akihiko explained, but I don't think he was telling the truth. I think he doesn't want cast suspicion on himself, but that's just me.

"Alright, then Aigis and I will investigate the crime scene. Ken and Yukari, try to find Fuuka." I said. They nodded and went off.

Let's see...I looked at Mitsuru's dead body...and the amount of blood here...it only made me nauseous, but I had to do it. I crouched down to have a closer inspection. Just as the autopsy said, she was stabbed with an ice pick multiple times...and from what I can tell, it probably was 5 or 7 times. Maybe less, maybe more. I then looked at her face and it looked like she was rather...calm? I wonder why...

I don't know why, but I had this weird feeling that something was under her body...I tried to reached out to move her, but I couldn't...this was too much, maybe if I was homicide detective then I would have no problem, but I couldn't just bring myself to touch it for obvious reasons. 1. She was dead. 2. She was a girl. I decided to ask Aigis about moving her body and she did so and I stepped out for a bit.

And right after Aigis moved her body, she made a surprised gasp. I looked at what she was looking and I got surprised myself. There was something spelled with blood her under her body, and well that something is...it spelled "FUUKA"...

Junpei and Akihiko went to see what's up and were surprised just as we were.

"What the hell? Hey, that spells Fuuka...Why?" Junpei asked a rhetorical question. Seriously, how should we know? Anyway, what IS this? Mitsuru's dying message, perhaps? If so, then is her killer...Fuuka!?

No, that's not possible...I really don't think Fuuka could ever be a killer, but she is currently missing. Also, another question rises. If Mitsuru wrote the dying message... then why was Mitsuru covering her own message? Was it because, she was afraid the killer might see it and then wipe it off? I then decided to take her right hand to see her index finger...and yep...there was some blood on it...

I really hope, it's not what it's looks like.

I look around the classroom and it doesn't look like there any sings of struggle. Hmmm...

Now the murder weapon...it doesn't look like it in this room. I asked Junpei and Akihiko if they per chance saw it but no they didn't. So the killer must have hid it somewhere, but where? I'll check the other rooms for it, then.

Now let's see, I guess I should talk to Akihiko about that something he found.

* * *

_Brief Flashback_

"_Guys, we found-" Akihiko started, but like Yukari and Ken, they stopped dead in their tracks._

* * *

I wonder what he found. I also, need to talk to Yukari being how she was the last person to talk to Mitsuru...I need more details about Mitsuru and Fuuka.

I'll speak with Akihiko first.

"Hey, Akihiko." I spoke. "Oh, hey..." He responded sadly. He looked rather depressed than sad. Well, I can't blame him. We didn't expect, Mitsuru ending up like...this...

"Can I ask you something?" I asked. "Oh, yeah...sure." He responded sadly again. He didn't seem to be in the mood to even talk, but I really need to know what he found. It might be important.

"When you came to look for us, you said you found something, but you didn't tell us what, so I wondering what was it that you found." I said. Akihiko looked at me as if he just remembered something.

"Oh, yeah! When I and Junpei were looking for Mitsuru in the lounge, well she wasn't there...but we found something." Akihiko started and then took a deep breath before continuing. "I found Mitsuru's phone lying on the sofa." Akihiko finished. He then reached out for it's pocket, revieling a red phone. "I didn't take a look inside yet, because Junpei and I were in a hurry, so see if there's something useful. Something that might tell us who killed Mitsuru." Akihiko pointed out.

I simply nodded. I looked at the red phone. I didn't want to do this, because it's like disturbing someone's privacy, but Akihiko did have a point. If there's even a slightest clue, I need to take it.

I opened up her phone lift lid and to see nothing of importance, though it looks like she had no sound. I then opened up "Email" and then "Inbox". It felt unnatural to look though someone's private messages. Hm? I looked at most recent unread one and it was...not that long ago!

This came to me as a surprise. Let's see here...

_From: Takeba_

_Subject: Meet me._

_When everyone going to leave for the student council, at 2:30 p.m., let's meet in the classroom 2-A, just the two of us. I need to talk with you about something._

_Date received: 36 minutes ago. _

I first took a look at the time and it was 3:01 p.m. So that would mean it was sent at 2:25 p.m.

And what's up with this? Did Yukari really sent this message to Mitsuru? If so, why? What was it that she wanted to talk about with Mitsuru. Plus she said to meet up with her at 2:30 which is her apparently time of death.

_Time of death: Between 2:30 p.m __-__ 2:40 p.m._

I need to question her about that. So will I ask Fuuka if she really meet up with Mitsuru.

"Is something wrong?" Akihiko asked me. He looked concerned. Wait did I look shocked when reading the email message? Well, anyway I didn't want anyone to know about this message...yet.

"Yeah, I'm okay. It doesn't look like there was anything useful in there. But I'll keep it with me, just in case of something." I lied. I sometimes feel bad about lying about things, but I didn't want Junpei or Akihiko cast suspicion on Yukari either. This is not enough proof that she killed Mitsuru. And I don't want to think that any one of us really killed her. I also need to know what was Mitsuru's phone was doing lying on the sofa.

Ok...Let's see how's Aigis doing. I actully wanted to ask her if she was keeping track of time when we were investigating the three rooms, because I noticed her looking at the time more frequently than the others.

"Hey Aigis, can I ask you something?" I asked.

"Is it the time you are wondering about?" She said, as if reading my mind.

"A-ah, yeah...can you please tell me?" I said, still surprised a little bit.

"At what point you want to know?" She replied.

"Well, since Yukari woke me up." I requested. Now that I think about it, it's kinda difficult, sense Aigis wasn't with Yukari at the time.

"Very well." She then looked up and thought. "All of us went looking for you at 1:40 p.m. And some of us not able to find you, we of us decided to come back to the student council and by "we" I mean, myself, Mitsuru-san, Akihiko-san, Junpei-san, Ken-kun and Fuuka-san. Yukari-san, however, decided to still look for you and that was 1:50 p.m. And I'm guessing Yukari-san, found around 1:55 p.m., am I right?" She stopped for correction.

"Yeah, Yukari said something about 35 minutes before the "something" happens." I said. I just realized that the "something" Ted was mentioning, was just another "start", so to say.

Aigis then continued. "So when you and Yukari-san came back to the student council it was about almost 2:00 p.m. By the time we went investigating the rooms it was 2:05 p.m." She said, but I briefly interrupted her.

"Yeah, and I stayed in the Student Council for about 5 minutes so that would make 2:10 p.m, 20 minutes before "something" happens." I said.

"Yes, and when you came into classroom 2-A where I and Ken-kun were investigating it was about that time. You stayed with us for 7 minutes so you left at, 2:17 p.m." She paused for a brief second and then continued. "Ken-kun and I decided to go back to the Student Council not to long after you left. We were the earliest to show up. We showed up at 2:20 p.m. And then we waited. After some time, Akihiko-san and Junpei-san showed up at 2:27 p.m." Aigis stopped and looked down as if she realized something..

But she then continued. "Well, we waited a couple more minutes and then Yukari-san showed up at 2:33 p.m. And shortly after you showed up at 2:35 p.m. And I guess we waited for Mitsuru and Fuuka for 10 minutes so it was 2:45 p.m. Before all of us went to look for them. And I assume that's it." Aigis finished. Thanks to her, I have a better understanding at what's what.

I see...I might be suspicious because I came at 2:35. That does kind of casts suspicion on me because...

_Time of death: Between 2:30 p.m. __-__ 2:40 p.m._

But still, I didn't kill Mitsuru and I would bet my life on it. So that means, Ken, Aigis, Junpei and Akihiko all have alibis. Only me, Yukari and Fuuka doesn't have them.

"In case you're wondering Aigis, I stayed in the faculty office when Akihiko and Junpei left. After some time of thinking to myself, I headed straight to the student council." I explained.

Since I had nothing much else to do here, I decided to go the lounge, but then suddenly Ken showed up.

"Guys, Yukari-senpai and I found her." Ken said. And I guess, by "her", he meant Fuuka.

"Where is she?" I asked quickly.

"I'll show you! Follow me!" Ken said, before rushing back to where he came from. Only I and Aigis followed him, being how Akihiko and Junpei are left on watch duty. We followed Ken until he stopped. It was the lounge. Great, just were I was planning to go.

Ken, without hesitating, opened the door and there I saw Fuuka being interrogated by Yukari. They apparently didn't notice us.

"Fuuka, what were you doing in the hidden closet?" Yukari asked almost sternly. Wait, what? Hidden closet?

"I-I t-told you I don't know." Fuuka replied in a quite scared tone. She was also fidgeting.

"Calm down, Yukari and Fuuka. What's this hidden closet you're talking about?" I said, trying to calm both Yukari and Fuuka. Fuuka smiled at mine's and Aigis's presence. Yukari, on the other hand, didn't seem to change her stern behavior.

"Oh, well...when Ken-kun and I were investigating the lounge for Fuuka, we heard some weird noises like banging. We searched around the room for the sound's source, and we found this hidden in-wall locker. And I've gotta say it was nicely camouflaged." Yukari explained.

I looked at the closet myself, and apparently just as Yukari said, it was camouflaged with lounge's wall color design. The closet itself, was spacious for only one person. So Fuuka was there? Why though...

"I'll you ask you this again, Fuuka. What were you doing in that closet." Yukari questioned in a more calmer tone.

"Umm, I honestly don't know, or rather I don't remember, the last thing I remember was how Mitsuru-senpai called for me to the classroom 2-A. Also, could someone please explain to me what's going on?" Fuuka said, holding her head with both of her arms.

So Yukari wasn't lying about that. I don't know why I doubted her. Maybe it was because of the message she sent to Mitsuru.

That said, Yukari, suddenly got aggravated by Fuuka's answer. ""I don't know" is not an answer!" Yukari shouted. Fuuka seems to be fidgeting again. Me, Aigis and Ken tried to calm Yukari down, but it didn't seem to be helping. Fuuka keeps insisting of not knowing why she was in the closet. She says, she doesn't remember, but how is that possible to not remember?

I don't want to think the killer is Fuuka so let's say this, the killer killed Mitsuru, probably made up that dying message and somehow drugged Fuuka and then decided to put her inside the hidden closet. But who would know of this hidden closet? The one who killed Mitsuru of course. When we were investigating the school for clues, we split up into 3 groups of people. Aigis and Ken...Junpei and Akihiko and Mitsuru, Fuuka and Yukari.

Fuuka and Yukari and Mitsuru, were investigating the lounge, the place we are at right now. So maybe one of these girls must have discovered this closet, in secret. Fuuka and Yukari. If I want to believe Fuuka, then all my suspicions will go on Yukari of being the culprit. If I want to believe Yukari, then did Fuuka really...murder Mitsuru?

If I suspect Fuuka then I wonder, why would she put herself inside the closet. Maybe it was to skip the time limit for finding the culprit? 5 hours. But then again she wanted out of the closet. Yukari said she heard banging on the walls and I'm pretty sure Ken will say the same thing. Anyway, It was like Fuuka wanted to attract Ken's and Yukari's attention, but that would totally cast a lot of suspicion on her. Maybe that she did that so that she could look innocent in front of us? But there's also the dying message Mitsuru wrote down.

Now, if I wanted to suspect Yukari of being Mitsuru's killer, then why would Yukari hid Fuuka? Well, that's easy. So that she would make it look like Fuuka was the one who did it. I could also assume that she wrote down the bloody "dying" message with Mitsuru's finger.

I wanted to say to myself this was pure speculation, and nothing else, but I do think that the bears words are getting to me.

"_As to answer to who killed Crimson...well, the fairly simple...one of you killed her."_

No, that wasn't possible, none of us could've killed Mitsuru. She was our friend. There must be someone else. Or I'd like to assume there's someone else. But we don't have the slightest of clues of who this "other person" is.

I'll think about this later, like I said I shouldn't have doubts about my friends until I have some decisive proof. And while I was deeply thinking to myself, someone violently shook by my shoulders.

"Huh? What?" I said, snapping out of my deep thinking. It was Yukari who shook me. And she was rather looking pissed.

"Finally, you snapped out of it!" Yukari said in a now relieved tone.

"Umm, did something happen while I was deep in thought?" I said, kind of embarrassed. I looked to see Yukari's hand were holding something.

Yukari, came to her "pissed off" state. "Weren't you looking!?" She yelled at me.

She then showed me something, it was the thing I noticed her holding. And that something is small tool that looked like an ice pick and it had blood on it. Wait so this is the murder weapon!?

"Huh? Where did you find this?" I asked. How could I miss this?

Yukari then looked down in disappointment and murmured something under her nose. "Damn, you really weren't looking..." She sighed and then continued with a slightly serious tone. "We found this ice pick when searching Fuuka's pockets." She finished. She handed me the ice pick that has some blood on the pick and handle had scribbled in a skull-looking thing. Where had I seen that before?

I was surprised at that. Fuuka wasn't just "hiding" in the hidden closet but she was also carrying the murder weapon with her? Well, there could be the other someone who really tried to pin this on Fuuka. Mitsuru's killer. "I see, where she now?" I asked. She pointed at the comfortable sofa. Fuuka and Aigis were sitting, and I guess...Aigis was explaining what happened. For a minute, I could see she was making shocked expressions and then she was sad.

"Just so you know Minato, I'm not gonna look away from Fuuka even for a second" Yukari said, determined. I think she's getting oversuspicious of Fuuka.

Where should I start? Should I start questioning Yukari or should I start with Fuuka. I guess, I should start with Fuuka first. There some stuff I need to ask her. I walked up to her and Aigis.

"Hey, Fuuka..." I started. Aigis apparently finished her explanation and headed off somewhere.

She looked down at the floor. "Aigis explained everything to me. So, everyone think I did it?" She said depressingly.

"No, no...We don't think that. I don't think that." I tried to reassure Fuuka. She smiled a little. Even though, she is our prime suspect, I still don't believe that Fuuka of all people could have done this. Someone else did. But who?

But when that question comes to mind, the only people pop into mind is Yukari and the other participant whom we don't know anything about. Maybe there no such thing as other participant. We only assumed that because we all trust each other and we obviously wouldn't kill Mitsuru.

No, I don't want to think about that...not yet...anyway.

"Ummm...Fuuka, I would like to ask you few things. I know you said that you don't remember, but you have to. Think back." I started. She looked up to me. "Ok...I'll try..." She responded and then closed her eyes and looked at nothing. I waited for about minute and she opened her eyes again.

"I think I remember." She paused to take a deep breath and continued. "When I, Mitsuru-senpai and Yukari were investigating, Mitsuru-senpai said I should go with her to the classroom 2-A. She said she had something to say to me after everyone stopped searching and had gone back to the student council. At 2:30 p.m. I think." That much is true, I guess. Wait...2:30?

_From: Takeba_

_When everyone going to leave for the student council, at 2:30 p.m., let's meet in the classroom 2-A, just the two of us. I need to talk with you about something._

There's something wrong with that message. I'm starting to wonder if it was Yukari who sent it.

"Mitsuru-san went out first and then said she going to wait for in the classroom 2-A. When the time came, I decided to go the classroom. And when I was about to enter the classroom...I think someone put me to sleep with some sort of drug..." She finished.

"I see...hmmm..." I hummed in thought.

"Where was Yukari at the time when you had to leave the lounge?" I questioned. "Oh, she said that she would go on ahead to the student council." She responded.

I'm still wondering about that message from Mitsuru's Inbox. Mitsuru asked Fuuka to come to the classroom 2-A at 2:30. But in the same time Yukari wanted to meet with Mitsuru in the same place classroom 2-A at 2:30. Could it be just a coincidence, or did someone else sent Mitsuru through Yukari's phone to make us think that Yukari was the one who sent it?

Well, I might as well ask Yukari myself. But before I could do anything, that annoying bear's voice rang out from the room.

"Ugh, I'm so bored with you still investigating. I think it's about time all of you confront the culprit." He said with bored tone.

"Hey, but I still haven't investigated everything yet!" I protested. He just gave displeased look and answered. "Yeah, YOU haven't, but others have and so I'm tired of waiting for your investigation to end. I mean, the fun part is when you confront the killer, with evidence that you already have. Not when you search the place for 3 hours or so! Anyway, all four of you come to the school hall, THAT is where you, confront the killer and solve this murder mystery!" Ted said with excitement and then laughed evilly.

I guess, I have no choice...I'll ask Yukari about the message later when we try to confront the killer.

But who's the killer? Yukari or Fuuka? And don't think there another person amongst us, because if what Ted says is true and that is he would lock us up here forever when the time runs out and we didn't confront the killer, then this show of his would hold no meaning, especially this episode.

"Minato-san." Aigis interrupted my line of thinking. We were still walking to school hall. Yukari still watching Fuuka intently.

"What is it?" She handed out me something. It was some cloth that is wet a little bit, a small bottle and a small key.

"What is this?" I asked. And where did she find this?

"It's a cloth, don't smell it though, I detected that it has some sort of soporific. And this bottle here is where the soporific came from. I found this in the lounge, behind the bar table, it was hidden behind the glasses." She explained. I see...Fuuka was telling the truth.

"And the key?" I asked. "I tested it out to what to what opens and or locks, and it appears to be a key for that hidden closet where Ken-kun and Yukari-san found Fuuka-san. I found this with the wet cloth and the bottle with the soporific."

I see...this is strange. If Fuuka really wanted to hide herself, she would've closed the closet from the inside, and that way no one could find her. If that were to be the case, why would she put the key behind the bar table?

I stopped. We made it to the school hall. At first, I hesitated to open the door, because I don't know what truth awaited me there, but I decided to swallow it and open the door. I will reach out for the truth. Whatever truth awaited me there, good or bad, sweet or bitter, I will have to accept it.

* * *

_Act 3: After the Murder: Confrontation_

* * *

As I open the door to the school hall, I immediately saw Junpei, Akihiko and Ken standing there, I guess they were waiting for us. As I, Aigis, Fuuka and Yukari all went in, the annoying bear's voice rang out throughout the hall.

"Well, it looks like everyone's here, let me explain how this works. When you guys determine who's the killer you will have to cast a vote, and for that I'll give 90 minutes until it's time to vote." Ted explained.

"What vote?" Ken asked. Suddenly 8 devices of some sort appears from under the floor. I picked one up. There was a little screen, with all 8 mugshots of us and big, red button. Damn, I look good in that mugshot if I say so myself, but jokes aside, what was this for, the voting?

"In front of you is the voting device, in which you will vote when the times comes and when you voted, the monitor on the center will show the results. The most name that will show in the monitor will be declared as the killer and it will tell you if you were right or not. Also, bear in mind, that if you don't want to vote, don't worry, I'm not going to force you, but someone here must vote, two participants is enough. And one more thing, not voting at all, is not an option, if all of you decide not to vote, it would mean...game over for you...And I'm pretty sure you know what I mean, right?" Ted explained and gave us a malicious smile.

The "Our Secret's And Shameful memories"? Yeah...haven't forgotten about that...

"And one last thing, if you already decided on who's the killer, then go ahead and vote. And before I forget, here's how it works. 1. Touch the face of your killer. 2. Push the button. It's simple as that." Ted said.

"Wait, before we begin this, can I ask you something, Ted?" I said. Ted looked at me and gave me a confused look.

"Is there another person amongst us 7?" I asked. I know the answer to that question, but I needed to ask him nonetheless, just for reassurance. Ted suddenly got agitated.

"Oh come on! I told you it was one of you 7 here. If I wanted to add another participant here, I wouldn't make him lurk around, and I would defiantly would make him be here, otherwise this episode is pointless without you finding the killer." Ted yelled. I see...you didn't have to yell at me.

"I see...well, I already know who's Mitsuru's killer is, and that is, Fuuka." Yukari declared with determination.

Akihiko and Junpei were shocked to hear that. I forgot they weren't investigating with us, so they don't know much, other than Mitsuru's dying message.

"Yukari, how can you just say it's Fuuka with such a straight face!" Akihiko said, almost yelling.

"I'll explain why." Yukari said. She then took a deep breath and started explaining.

* * *

_Discussion: Why is Fuuka the Killer?_

"_So you ask why is Fuuka the killer?"_

"_Well, here's your answer!"_

"_There's a lot of evidence pointing out to her."_

"_First is the murder weapon, she was carrying that in her pocket when we found her."_

"_Second, she was hiding in a hidden closet in the lounge."_

"_Third, I heard from Aigis, that Mitsuru, supposedly, wrote Fuuka__'s__ name in her own blood."_

"_Plus, Mitsuru and Fuuka were discussing about something in the classroom 2-A"_

"_And that's how she killed Mitsuru."_

* * *

"And that concludes my explanation. You get it now? Fuuka's is the killer." Yukari finished.

Wait..."Objection!" Always wanted to say that, anyway back to what I was saying. Yukari looked at me, surprised. "I don't think Fuuka killed Mitsuru. There's something wrong with what you just, Yukari. I mean, why does she hide in the hidden closet and not come back to the student council? And does she has a motive to kill Mitsuru in a first place?" I inquired.

"Isn't that obvious? She was hiding, because she wanted to wait until the time limit for investigating ran off." She said.

"That's would not be possible, Fuuka wasn't present when we found Mitsuru's body and when Ted told us about the time limit. It wouldn't make sense for her not to come back to the student council. Plus, it would just make her look suspicious." I said.

Yukari looked down. "Well, how about this..."

* * *

_Discussion: Why did Fuuka hide in the closet?_

"_She hid in that closet, because she wanted to hid something with her."_

"_And that is the murder weapon!"_

"_She also hid herself, for the reason that someone could find her."_

"_I mean, she's the only one who knew about this hidden closet."_

* * *

"You see now?" Yukari finished. Hold on..."Wait a minute there! Yukari what you said, just contradicts on what you said earlier." I objected.

"What do you mean?" Yukari said confusingly.

"When Ken and you found Fuuka in the hidden closet, you said you heard noises like banging." I rebutted.

"Oh, yeah...I can attest to that." Ken spoke. Yukari looked down in embarrassment.

"Like I said, Fuuka did not kill Mitsuru." I said with seriousness. Yukari looked up again at me and spoke. "Aren't you forgetting something, Minato?"

"Which is what?" I asked. Maybe I shouldn't have, sense I knew what she was talking about.

"Come on, what about Mitsuru's dying message?" Yukari said. "I think..."

* * *

_Discussion: Mitsuru's dying message._

"_Come on, like I said, Aigis said that Mitsuru wrote something with her own blood."_

"_And by what Aigis told me, I think it's a pretty good chance that Mitsuru wrote that."_

"_She wrote that with her right index finger."_

"_That does make sense, being how Mitsuru is right handed."_

"_Aigis also told me that her body was covering her own dying message."_

"_I suggest that Mitsuru covered her dying message, so that Fuuka wouldn't see it." _

"_I mean, if I were to be a killer."_

"_And I saw someone writing my name with their blood."_

"_I would defiantly would wipe it off."_

* * *

She does have a point, but..."Hold it!" I shouted. Yukari looked at me surprised and made an expression as if saying "What is it now?"

"I don't think that Mitsuru actually ever wrote that dying message." I said. Everyone were surprised at my statement, but there really isn't anything to be surprised about.

"What do you mean?" Yukari demanded.

"It's simple really, she was killed in an instant. Remember what Ted's autopsy report told us?" I said, and then took out the autopsy report and read out the cause of death.

"_Cause of death: Multiple stab wounds on the back."_

"So what's your point?" Junpei asked. Apparently, no one gets it.

"My point is that it would abnormal to think that Mitsuru would survive for that long, when I and Aigis examined her body, we saw 5 to 7 stab wounds. Even she did survive for a couple seconds, she wouldn't have the strength to write Fuuka's name fully or to write at all." I pointed out.

How could I miss this simple thing? Well, I was still in shock that I couldn't think all to properly. Yukari didn't seem to be fazed. "I don't think so..."

* * *

_Discussion: Fuuka's Appointment_

"_So what, are you suggesting that someone else wrote that name?"_

"_I don't think so..."_

"_Fuuka still needed to go and meet with Mitsuru."_

"_And so she did."_

"_And only Mitsuru could've wrote Fuuka's name."_

"_Because, I don't think Fuuka's dumb enough to write her own name through Mitsuru"_

"_That would just be stupid..."_

* * *

Denial at it's finest. She's right on the Fuuka meeting with Mitsuru, but..."Objection!" I said it again.

Everyone looked at me. "Fuuka did not meet with Mitsuru." I said. Yukari looked at me with confused eyes that demand an answer.

"She couldn't meet up with Mitsuru, because she was put to sleep." I said, putting both arms on my hips.

Everyone looked at me in shock, including Yukari. Well, except Aigis, because I think she knows what I'm talking about. I need to thank her by the way for finding that bottle and cloth.

"Don't be ridiculous, where's your proof!?" Yukari roared.

Without saying anything, I took out the bottle with soporific and the cloth that has the soporific.

"What is that?" Akihiko asked.

"That is the bottle of soporific and this piece of cloth here is what has some of that stuff soaked in. Aigis found this." I explained.

"Where did you find that?" Ken curiously asked.

"I found it in behind the bar table in the lounge, it was hidden behind the drinking glasses." Aigis said.

"So you're saying that she was drugged and then what...someone put her inside the closet?" Yukari inquired.

"But, who knows, maybe that's supposed to be just for show. Maybe, Fuuka decided to soak the cloth with soporific and put it in behind the glasses, and make us assume that she was drugged." Yukari rebutted.

Yukari has a point. Fuuka could have put that to make us assume she was drugged. There's no guarantee that someone drugged her. Is there anything that contradicts that? I don't want to believe that Fuuka murdered Mitsuru. I looked at Fuuka. She was scared, that much is obvious. There has to be something.

"See? There no room left for doubt. I suggest we all vote now for Fuuka." Yukari proposed. Everyone looked hesitant at the devise Ted had given us. I looked at Yukari who was actually about to press the button.

"Wait, Yukari!" I stopped her. She looked at me with an annoyed look. "What?" She replied.

"There's something I don't get...There's something interesting I found" I said without thinking. I'm not sure what is was, but I'm sure it's something. Wait...there IS something.

* * *

_Brief Flashback_

"_And the key?" I asked. "I tested it out to what to what opens and or locks, and it appears to be a key for that hidden closet where Ken-kun and Yukari-san found Fuuka-san._

* * *

"What's this "something interesting" you found?" Yukari asked.

"Well, I didn't find, Aigis did." I said, pointing to Aigis. I then took out the key that Aigis gave me.

"Is that a key?" Ken asked. "I found this with the wet cloth and the bottle with the soporific." Aigis explained. "And it appears to be a key for that hidden closet." I finished.

Everyone got surprised, except me and Aigis. "Remember on what we discussed earlier? On why Fuuka hid in the closet? Let's say, hypothetically, Fuuka is the killer...then she would have closed herself inside, and stayed inside there with the key. That way, no one could find her. If she was able to lock herself inside, then there would be no point to the soporific soaked cloth, yet Aigis found that key right next to the bottle and the cloth. Point is, that the real killer did in fact drug Fuuka and mistakenly put the key right next to the bottle and the cloth.

Everyone got surprised. I think I've really proven that Fuuka didn't kill Mitsuru and she definitely didn't forge that soaked cloth with the bottle.

"Then, who is the killer?" Junpei inquired. So it finally lead to this. I really didn't want this to happen, but do I really have a choice? I looked at device that Ted gave it read: 60 minutes remaining.

The killer could only be..."Yukari! You killed Mitsuru and drugged Fuuka!" I shouted and pointed my index finger at her, Phoenix Wright style. Everyone were shocked at my sudden outburst, including Yukari herself.

"Wha? What!?" Yukari started with roar. "Don't be ridiculous, Minato! I did not kill anyone!" She yelled. "I mean, where's your proof?"

"When we were investigating the school, Mitsuru, Fuuka and you all investigated the lounge. Mitsuru is...well, dead. I just proved Fuuka was drugged with soporific and the killer tried to pin this on her." I pointed out. Yukari didn't seem to accept that.

"That's just circumstantial proof! You haven't shown any real proof!? The murder took place in classroom 2-A, and I had no reason to go there, and you can't proof otherwise!" She shouted.

"Oh, yes I can!" I shouted back.

I took out the Mitsuru's phone and showed it to everyone. Akihiko immediately recognized it. "Hey, that's Mitsuru's phone."

Yukari didn't seem to move an inch, after she saw Mitsuru's phone, she started to bite her fingernail.

"Akihiko you found this phone in lounge, on the sofa, correct?" I said looking at Akihiko. He nodded.

"Now, I actually found something interesting in her phone, specifically an Inbox message and it's sender." I said.

Everyone looked at me with anxious look on their eyes. I got where the message was and read it out to everyone.

"_When everyone going to leave for the student council, at 2:30 p.m., let's meet in the classroom 2-A, just the two of us. I need to talk with you about something."_

"_From: Takeba"_

"Also, the time it was sent was 2:25 p.m. 5 minutes before Fuuka had to meet up with Mitsuru." I explained. "The question is, what reason did you have to send this?"

Everyone looked at Yukari. It's time I got an answer for this. She was silent and after a little while "I didn't send this!?" She shouted.

"You can play innocent, but there's no escape from your crime, Yukari. So, just for good measure, I'll explain how it all happened, from the start!"

"Let's go back when we were investigating for clues. Junpei and Akihiko were searching the faculty office, Aigis and Ken in classroom 2-A and Yukari, Mitsuru and Fuuka were searching the lounge.

"At the lounge, the killer found 4 things in secret: the key to the hidden closet, the closet itself, an ice pick and the soporific.

"The killer thought up a plan to get rid of Mitsuru and Fuuka."

"Before she could execute her plan, the killer sent Mitsuru a message telling her to meet up in classroom 2-A at 2:30."

"But Mitsuru did not heard or saw that message, because she forgot it in the lounge and the phone had no sound at the time, so she had no way of knowing someone had sent her a message or not."

"The killer also overheard Mitsuru's and Fuuka's little chat, saying how Fuuka should meet up with Mitsuru in classroom 2-A. She couldn't let that happen."

"After Mitsuru left, who was the first to leave the lounge, the killer went after, holding a soaked cloth with soporific in it. Shortly after the killer went of, Fuuka headed out to the classroom 2-A to meet up with Mitsuru. The killer's plan was to put Fuuka to sleep and put her to the hidden closet."

"After the killer did that, the killer got herself an ice pick, hid the cloth with soporific bottle behind the bar table, behind the drinking glasses and mistakenly leaving the key to the closet with it, and headed out at the appointed time to meet up with Mitsuru."

"Mitsuru was surprised, because it wasn't whom she was expecting. But the killer perceived into talking about something she wanted to talk about.

"After a minute of talking or so, the killer, took the right moment to attack. After, mercilessly stabbing Mitsuru on the back 5 or 7 times, the killer killed Mitsuru."

"After the killer has murdered Mitsuru, she continued to go by her plan to pin everything on Fuuka, by putting a fake dying message with Mitsuru's blood and writing it using Mitsuru's index finger."

"But that was proven to be impossible, because Mitsuru immediately died or survived for a little bit, but had no strength left to write the name."

"After the killer did that, she moved Mitsuru's body to cover the fake dying message, for the purpose to make us think Mitsuru dragged her own body to cover her own "dying" message" so that the killer wouldn't notice that."

"After that was done, she needed to dispose of the murder weapon, and to do that, all she had to was to plant it on Fuuka's clothes, to make her look even more suspicious."

"After she had done all that, the killer hurried down to the student council room and to look innocent up until this moment..."

"Yukari Takeba...you're the one who did it all!" I shouted, pointing my index finger at her once again.

The room feel silent. For a moment, I couldn't believe I said all of that, but if not Yukari or Fuuka, who would be the murderer? Was I even given a choice?

Not long after, Yukari finally spoke, almost laughing. "Hgm, ha, oh so you think I did it? Then tell me why I did it! I had no motive to, what you said? "Get rid" of them! None!" She yelled.

"Actually, you had! Your only motive was to escape this world as fast as possible." I pointed out. That actually made me realize something, why did Yukari would want to escape as fast as possible? It wasn't like her. She was silent.

"You can continue play innocent, but no one in their right mind, would think it wasn't you." I said. I looked at everyone, they were overwhelmed. No surprised there. I then looked at device that Ted gave us, it read: 30 minutes remaining.

"I suggest we all vote, now and see if I was right or not." I proposed. Without hesitation, I touched Yukari's mugshot and pushed the red button. I looked at everyone, they looked hesitant but they also pushed the button. Everyone pushed beside, well, Fuuka and Yukari.

Suddenly a voice rings out. "_The voting has ended. Displaying __votes__ accordingly."_

I looked at the monitor that was above us. It showed everyone voting for, except Fuuka and Yukari herself. After a few seconds, it showed us who was the real killer.

"_Congratulations! Yukari Takeba is the perpetrator!"_

It appears I was right. Now the question is why Yukari did it. I said it's because she wanted to escape, but I'm sure she wouldn't have killed her friend over something like this. There must be a better reason than that.

Everyone was silent for long time until..."Heh..hahahahaha..." Someone laughed and it appears to be Yukari laughing. Huh? What's so funny?

"Well, it looks like there's no point in hiding it anymore." Yukari said and now looked at everyone with a maniacal face and creepy grin. Her face could be called cold and empty, devoid of emotion. There was something off with that creepy grin she was making.

"As Minato correctly deduced and the monitor showed...Yes, I really did kill Mitsuru." She said, almost nonchalantly.

"Why the hell did you kill Mitsuru, Yukari!" Akihiko roared. He was now angry, and so was Junpei, Ken and Aigis. Me and Fuuka were just shocked.

"Oh, that...Minato was right for the most part. My reason for killing Mitsuru and trying to blame Fuuka, was just to escape. But there's more, the other reason I wanted to do this, is simple. They were getting in my way." She said, still not wiping off that grin of her face.

Getting in her way? Everyone looked confused, including me. "Come on, don't act dumb Minato, you know what I'm talking about...you should still have them." She said. Have what? I don't know what you're talking about...or wait...

I took out the three "love" letters. Fuuka got surprised. Yukari looked at me with delight. "Hey, looks like you still haven't forgotten about those." She said.

"What are you getting at here? Start explaining!" I shouted. Just what does these "love" letters have to do with anything.

"The reason I killed Mitsuru and tried to blame Fuuka, is like I said, simple. Let's say...they were my love rivals." What? Love rivals, then that would mean. "Yes. I did all that just to be with you, Minato."

What she said, absolutely terrified me. Is that what they call...Yandere? Anyway, that reason is completely absurd. Did she really do all that just to be with me? What about the dark hour? Does that even concerns her? Something definitively off with her. I can't put my finger on it, but I feel like she's Yukari, but different. She then continued talking.

"Like you said Minato, I did have a little chat with Mitsuru. And that "something" I mentioned in her message, is actually about that subject."

* * *

_Flashback_

_Yukari came into classroom 2-A, holding tightly an ice-pick that she got from the lounge. In the classroom, was standing Mitsuru, she looked at Yukari, but didn't seem to notice the ice pick on her hand. _

"_Hm? Takeba, why are you here? Shouldn't you be going to the student council?" Mitsuru asked Yukari. Yukari was silent for after seconds until she spoke. "You shouldn't hang out with Minato, because he is mine." Yukari said threateningly._

_Mitsuru just turned away and said. 'I don't know what you're talking about." Mitsuru said._

_Yukari was now facing Mitsuru's back, and that's when she decided to attack. _

"_Aggghh!" Yukari battle roared at Mitsuru. Mitsuru didn't even have the time to react to that outburst, because she was already stabbed. Multiple times._

* * *

"I could also say, I was rather jealous of her! She was gorgeous. She was rich. But most of all, she still had a father and I didn't." She exclaimed.

"That's your reason! You can't be serious!" I shouted at her. I can't believe this. I couldn't believe this.

"Hgmf. But, I am. I failed in the end though. Discovered by non other than you. Still, I'd rather enjoyed killing Mitsuru. The feeling was...I rather be honest, I was excited. It is a powerful memory." She described. This is unreal. That Yukari is unreal.

"You are not Yukari! You're a fake!" I yelled. That person couldn't possibly be the Yukari, I just know it.

"Heh, what makes you say that? Standing before you is the real me, Yukari Takeba." She acknowledged.

"The Yukari, I...no we know, couldn't possibly be you. She wouldn't kill Mitsuru and she definitely wouldn't try to blame it on someone like Fuuka!" I said, gritting my teeth in anger.

"Oh? Didn't you know, Minato, that every person has _**shadow **_inside them? Well, I do. And I couldn't withhold my hidden emotions any longer." She said.

No I refuse to believe that. The real Yukari would never...do something horrible as to go to murder. None of us would do that.

"Oh hey, it's Ted." Yukari pointed at the podium behind us. I turned around to see nothing but an empty podium. I just realized, he wasn't speaking with us this whole time, even when we discovered Yukari's the killer. Where was he?

"Hey wait! I said wait, goddammit!" Akihiko roared. It took me a second to realize that Yukari tricked us, well she tricked me for the most part.

When I turned around, Yukari was already at the door that leads to the hallway. And Akihiko was already started chasing her.

I followed after him and so did the others.

Unfortunately, we lost her. We decided to split up. Me and Aigis decided search the classroom 2-A, Fuuka and Junpei decided search the lounge and Akihiko and Ken decided search the faculty office.

We all regrouped near the stairway that was still had a huge grate.

"Have you...guys found...her?" I asked, gasping for air after running so much. They all shook their heads. "Same...with us." I said, still panting.

"Do you think she went past this grate?" Junpei asked. Looking at the stairway.

I took a closer look at the grate, and from what I can see, there was no sign of it able to be unlocked for here. "No, she couldn't have. You see here, there was no keyhole, no password activation devise either, and not even a card reader. You can't open it from here." I pointed out. Wait...

"Then where could she be? We sea-" Akihiko started. "The library!" But I interrupted him. Everyone looked at me. "Guys, follow me!" I said before running off to the library. I have forgotten about that place completely. The fake Yukari must be there. If not there, then I don't know.

As I finally made it here, and shortly after everyone else did, Junpei asked, while panting. "H-hey...what gives! Tell us...why the library?"

I looked at the password indication devise. It was still there, thankfully. "Simple, this door is the only door we haven't checked out, and this door is openable, it only requires the right 8 digit password." I explained. They all looked surprised. Had they really hadn't noticed something so obvious as that?

"But wait, it has a lock, how do you think she was able to open that door? And even if she did open it, why doesn't it stay open?" Ken curiously asked me.

"It could be that she knew the combination before hand and the door...and well, when the only answer I can think of is when this door closes the password resets. It's simple." I answered.

Anyway, I need to think this through again. I took out all 8 cards and the notebook with three pages. I looked at the 8 cards first. Fool, Star, Tower, Fortune, Moon, Death, Hermit and finally World. I then re-read the text, because I'm sure it's vital for the combination. As I was re-reading the text.

"I can't believe...Yukari-chan really killed Mitsuru-senpai..." Fuuka spoke, after along time. I was begging to think she had lost her voice because of the things that were happening.

"Don't worry, Fuuka. I'm sure the Yukari we saw wasn't the real Yukari. I mean, it makes sense, Ted probably purposely made another Yukari, an evil one, for the purpose of this episode." I tried to reassure everyone.

"And how the hell do you think he did that?" Junpei asked another rhetorical question.

"How should I know? Ask him yourself, but I know I'm right." I said with confidence, I didn't know why I was so confident about that.

That said, I finally re-read the text and I think I know what I'm suppose to do. I think the text shows me the order of how I should put in the combination. I decided to start of with the letter combination.

So it should be like this...F...W...T...S...F...H...D...M...I pushed in the buttons and then pressed "enter" and theeeeen...

Bingo! I was right! The password was FWTSFHDM...don't know what the means though. I mean usually, you would put some kind of meaning behind a password, but not in Ted's case, I guess.

Now, came the number combination. I didn't know about this one. I guess, I should go with the order I gone with the letter combination. The numbers were laid out from 0 to 9...Alright...

I went ahead and put multiple combinations. 02116171...02117109...02113189...no, no, NO...they're all incorrect...most of these arcana were of 2 digit value.

Fool is 0...World is (XXI)21...Tower is (XVI)16...Star is (XVII)17...Fortune is (X)10...Hermit is (X)9...Death is (XIII)13...and Moon is (XVIII)18...if only I could shrink a 2 into 1 digit...is there a way to do that? Wait...what if...

I once again, entered another combination. This time is was...03781949...Bingo...correct! I think I just heard a door unlocking.

So all I had to do is to summarize the 2 digit number into one...example...Death is (XIII)13...but what if I could make that number into one number...so what I do is simply...basic math...1 + 3 makes 4 and that's how I did it with the other 2 digit numbers...Fool and Hermit didn't require that, because they were already a one digit number.

"Good job, Minato!" Akihiko praised me. The others just smiled and nodded.

"Are you guys ready? I'm going to open the door." I said putting myself in a ready stance. Everyone nodded.

I opened the door to the library, and, as I expected, it looked just like Gekkoukan High library. I noticed, most primarily, a lot of bookshelfs with books in them, a reception desk and long table for studies.

"There she is!" Aigis loudly said. There she was. "Yukari" was standing near one of the bookshelfs. Though, I feel like there's something off here. She was holding her head with her left arm and looked rather dazed. Why was she doing that? "Guys!" She said with relief, her eyes were still half open, but she could talk normally. She smiled when she saw us.

"Don't "guys" us! It's time you explain how got in here and what the hell do have to with the bear!" Junpei yelled at her.

"Huh?...Guys?...What happened?" Yukari said sluggishly. Wait, I didn't see the Yukari standing before us move her lips or make a sound. What the hell?

I looked around, just to be shocked and confused. The voice we just heard, belonged to the other Yukari. Yes, there were TWO Yukari's!

"W-what the h-hell?" Junpei said in a terrified tone, that was barely audible. He just took the words right out of my mouth. Seriously, what is the meaning of this?

"Huh? What the hell? Why is there another me?" Said the surprised Yukari we encountered first. Let's temporarily call her Yukari #1.

"Guys, explain to me what's going on in here?" Said the Yukari who was looking at us with demanding eyes, that we encountered after Yukari #1. Let's call her Yukari #2.

I don't know what to say. There were two Yukari's in front of us. Who is the real one and who is the fake one? Is this one of Ted's stupid pranks? If it is, it's not funny. What are we supposed to do in here? Guess which one is the real? Is this all part of the show?

"Alright, just confess who's the fake here!" Junpei yelled. The both Yukari's got surprised. "Fake? What are you talking about, Junpei. Open your eyes! I don't know what's going one here, but I'm definitely not this...this...imposter!" Yukari #2 shouted.

"Who are you calling imposter, imposter!" Yukari #1 shouted back at the Yukari #1.

"Stop playing already, and one of you tell us who's the fake!" Junpei continued yelling.

This is going nowhere. There must be a way to determine who the real and who's the fake. I should know better, who's the real Yukari. There must be something that defines Yukari, something she wears everyday and everytime. Hmmmm...As I was thinking, I remembered something.

* * *

_Flashback_

_10 days ago...Sunday..._

"_Hey, Yukari, can I ask you something?" I said coming near her. She was sitting on a sofa in 2nd floor of the dormitory, reading something like magazine and so I came to join her._

"_Yeah, sure what is it?" She said, closing and putting her magazine to her thighs._

"_I'm curious, why do you always wear that pink heart-shaped choker?" I asked. I couldn't hold the curiosity any longer._

"_Oh this?" She started, as she touched her heart choker. "Yeah, I do. I took a liking to this thing and started wearing it as long as I can remember." She finished. _

"_Oh, ok...Anyway, want to go to Tartarus tonight?" I inquired. _

"_Suuuure..." She said, before going back to reading her magazine._

* * *

That's right! Her pink heart-shape choker. I quickly looked at both Yukari's, who was still fighting over who's the real one, anyway I looked at them really closely, at their necks. And that's when I noticed. The both Yukari were wearing the heart choker, but Yukari #1 had a black heart, and Yukari #2 had all-pink heart. It's obvious now who's the fake Yukari.

"Yukari #1, you're the fake one!" I shouted as I pointed the index finger at her. Aigis, Fuuka, Akihiko, Junpei and Ken noticed at the direction I was pointing. Everyone immediately looked at her. The real Yukari, still stood her place for some reason.

"How can you be so sure, Minato-kun! The one on your right is the imposter." She yelled.

"Aha, not so! Do you think I made a wild guess? No, I of course can prove that you're the phony!" I said with confidence, as I pointed my index finger at her again.

She glared at me with a little bit of fear, and gritted her teeth in nervousness. I would like all of you to take a closer look on the fake Yukari's neck and then look at the real Yukari neck." I started explaining.

"Well, they both wear heart chokers that Yukari always wears. What's the problem?" Ken pointed out.

"Didn't I tell you to take a closer look? Can't you see? The Yukari on the left, the fake one, has black heart choker. The Yukari I know, would never wear as something as a black heart!" I said the truth.

"Minato..." The real Yukari, said in relief, though she still haven't recovered from all that been happening. The fake Yukari, however, was looking rather grim.

"Give up, Faker, there's no running away now!" I yelled. She stood silent for only a second until she the unexpected happened. The fake Yukari, quickly grabbed, with one hand, the real Yukari by the torso, and the other arm she took out a weapon. It was the murder weapon, the long sharp ice pick. Dammit, forgot she had that! Anyway, she pointed almost near the real Yukari's neck. I looked at the real Yukari, she was obviously terrified, and I don't think she could even speak.

"Step back!" She threatened us.

"Let her go, you sonovabitch!" Junpei roared. "Why are you so stubborn to the end!? Give up, you lost!" Akihiko yelled.

"You wouldn't understand..." She began and then gave us that creepy cold look and a creepy grin again.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"I don't think I'm not in the liberty to say that t-" She replied but got interrupted, by sudden gunshot. All of us got startled by that. For a few moments I looked around the room. Where did the gunshot came from? It was then, when I heard something drop. I looked back at the two Yukari's...and huh? What just happened?

I saw the real Yukari running towards us and the fake falling to ground. I just noticed that she had been bleeding from her torso. Did the gunshot hit her? Well it did, of course but who the hell shot the gun? While I was asking myself questions. The fake Yukari already drooped to the floor completely. She didn't appear to be moving. I looked at the others. Fuuka seems to made Yukari sit on the chair and was now trying to make her relax.

Then something unexpected happened yet again.

...Ding, DING, DANG, Dong...Dang, Dong, DANG, DONG...

"_This concludes the second episode of the Hysterical Midnight Show. Thank you for your participation. The third episode will begin after 30 minute brake, and when all participants gather in the school hall, the episode will begin." _Said_ t_he announcer in a monotone. Huh? The second episode is finished?

Well of course it is...we did find the killer...

"He he he he...Congratulations, guys! You made it through the second episode." Said the "out of nowhere" Ted. Seriously, he wasn't anywhere in the area and now he decides to show up.

"Explain what's going on in here, why is there two Yukari's in here? Was it you, who shot the fake Yukari." Aigis asked roughly.

"Isn't that obvious? It was all part of the show! I never intended to get the real participant kill someone. There had to be a fake." Ted said. Never intended? There had to be a fake? That means the real Yukari really didn't kill anyone. That's not surprising, but what was the point? There must be a reason for why was there a fake Yukari...She murdered Mitsuru...something's off here...

"Is everything alright, everyone?" Someone said. I recognize that voice. I turned around to see another surprise before my eyes. It was...Mitsuru in the flesh. Alive and well. What the hell's going on!?

"The look in your faces makes you all look like you've seen a ghost." She pointed out. All of us ran up to her, smiling in relief and gladness that Mitsuru was alive. Hell yeah. You've came back from the dead...or maybe not...maybe she was alive this whole time. Then the other Mitsuru...the dead one...is a fake?

"Figured it out? There were no murders, or murderers in the making of this episode. And the funny part is...they were here in the library this whooooooole time...Hahahaha!" Ted said before laughing hysterically. I looked at him.

"What's the real point of this episode, then. I mean, sure there were killings, but they appear to be fake. So what's the point?" I asked.

"I'll tell you later. You have left 25 minutes before your break ends. Laters!" Ted ignored our question and ran off somewhere. Dammit, why does he keep doing that.

I looked back at the others. Now there was all 8 of us. I felt a little bit of joy, behind that. Anyway, we don't have that much time. I'm betting the real Yukari and Mitsuru are confused about what's been happening, so we should better explain. There's a lot of things we don't understand still, but I'm sure we'll get your answers.

Right now, we move on to the other nightmares that will await us in this...show...

* * *

_Episode 2: The Murder Mystery: Minato's Route [END]_

_[NEXT] Episode 2: The Murder Mystery: Yu's Route_

* * *

**And there we have it! Another, over 9000, load bunch of words and even slightly longer the first chapter..Wooo!...I really hope I didn't make any stupid mistakes in this chapter or make a ended in a crappy way...because I put my heart and soul into this chapter...Please review your thoughts into this. Did you like it? Did you hate it? Did you like the twists? Did I make Yukari being guilty THAT obvious? Anything? I would really appreciate some feedback. Until next time...farewell.**

**P.S.: The next chapter may take me even longer...so I'm sorry in advance...**


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